By Doug Fletcher,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Area seniors say they’re in no rush to sign up for a Medicare prescription drug benefit plan.

It isn’t that they don’t want help in paying for their medications; rather, most say the plans are too complicated.

“It’s extremely confusing,” said Constance Bourgette of Lewiston. “I’m almost afraid of picking a plan because I might pick the wrong one.”

Bourgette said she’ll visit the local Social Security office today – the first day that Medicare recipients become eligible for the program.

“I’m hoping they can help me pick the right plan,” she said.

Madeleine Beaulieu, who was helping Bourgette staff the Senior Citizen’s Office at the Multi-Purpose Center Monday, said she also has reservations about the federal government’s most recent tinkering with Medicare.

“I don’t have any kind of drug plan right now,” she said, “but I’m not sure if it will benefit me at all.”

Beaulieu said she takes two prescriptions, neither very expensive, and she’s wondering if the cost of the program will be worth it.

“I haven’t checked the prices yet,” she said.

But there is an aspect of the plan that she already knows she doesn’t like.

“I don’t like the fact that they can assess us 1 percent per month for every month that we wait to sign up” after the open enrollment period ends May 1, 2006.

“I could have to pay 24 percent more if I wait two years” to see how the programs work out, she noted.

Both women said Congress could have done a better job in drafting the law setting up the prescription drug plan.

“I think this is something that they hurried through,” said Bourgette. “Whoever put up the plan in the first place should have given it much more thought.”

And don’t forget to save some criticism for President George Bush on that front, added Emy Nadeau of Sabattus.

Nadeau was finishing a cup of coffee at Tim Hortons on Lisbon Street when she offered her observations.

She said that as with many things approved by Congress and endorsed by the president, the prescription drug plan is intended to help the poor and not hurt the rich.

“It doesn’t help the middle class,” she said.

And the various plans – she heard there are 40 in Maine; others say 41 – are “very confusing.”

“The deductible is terrible,” Nadeau said. “I think the AARP plan might be the best,” but, she added, “I’m not going to sign up right off. I want to wait a couple of weeks, then go to SeniorsPlus to find out what the scoop is.”

U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, a Democrat, lambasted the program in a statement released Monday.

“This new prescription drug plan is complicated and confusing, leaving many concerned that they will be faced with fewer benefits, and possibly higher out-of-pocket costs than before,” he stated. “No one will get the ideal coverage, and for many there are no good choices.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, another Democrat, said he’s been contacted by dismayed and confused seniors.

“There is no denying that this is an extremely flawed plan,” Michaud said in a statement. “When the Medicare drug plan was being assembled, the pharmaceutical lobby convinced its authors to write a rule into the law that forbids ever negotiating for lower cost prescriptions in Medicare. That was a blatant, multi-billion dollar giveaway to big drug companies who charge American consumers far more than anyone else in the world.”

He said the drug plan should be amended to allow negotiations for lower cost medicines.

However, “Despite the many drawbacks in this new program, I would still urge Maine seniors to become as informed as possible about the new Medicare options to determine if there is a plan that is right for them.”

Nationally there are 40 million Medicare beneficiaries; Maine has 244,000 eligible for the prescription drug plan.