Warnings of a debacle were all over the place, but the federal government failed to recognize the precarious situation into which it was throwing senior citizens with the new Medicare Part D prescription drug plan.

Gov. Baldacci and his administration, on the other hand, saw the light at the end of the tunnel and recognized it for what it was – an oncoming train.

In the week before Part D kicked in, Maine sent a letter to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the program, warning that many state residents were in danger of falling through the cracks.

The dire warning proved prescient.

Come the new year, seniors were left struggling to sort out the mess.

Many had trouble getting the medicine they needed, others found that the small co-pays they had expected had grown into full-size payments of $100 or more.

Pharmacists, Johnny on the spot for people trying to deal with Part D, were left without the tools they needed to help people sort out their problems. And it didn’t just happen in Maine. Seniors in Vermont, New York, Florida and Texas ran into similar problems.

Maine is picking up the slack where the federal government isn’t. Early in the week, the state made arrangements to pay pharmacists until Medicare can be sorted out. But the state’s efforts began even earlier.

Baldacci has been proactive on Part D from the onset. The state analyzed Medicare’s plans to randomly enroll thousands of Mainers in the private drug plans that make up Part D. The administration realized that those seniors faced long odds that all of their individual prescriptions would be covered and went about the task of helping them find the plans that best covered their prescriptions at the best price. Most – if not all – other states left their senior populations to navigate Part D without that assistance.

The state’s help desk has faced a withering assault of phone calls seeking help. By Jan. 3, only two days into the new year, the state had received 15,000 calls.

On Jan. 5, Vermont followed Maine’s lead and stepped in to help its senior population whose drug coverage wasn’t working.

Many pharmacists, too, are providing a bridge for their customers by giving them a short-term supply of the medicine they need.

We have been skeptical of Part D from the beginning, but even the best-designed government program is prone to difficulties at launch. What’s most disturbing here is that the feds had advance notice from Maine of a costly – and dangerous – flaw and did nothing to correct it before tossing seniors and their drug needs into the mix.

Given the state’s track record at the Department of Health and Human Services and its own computer debacle with Medicaid, we can understand if people are reluctant to give the state credit here. But this time, the early indications are that the state got it right and has helped thousands of people who otherwise would have had to do without their medicine.