Did you know that the deadline for signing up for Medicare Part D, the new prescription drug coverage, is May 15? If not, you have plenty of company. About half of seniors still eligible to enroll don’t know about the deadline, according to a recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation. And many seniors also don’t know about the lifetime penalties for missing the deadline.

The Bush administration is resisting calls to extend the deadline and drop the fines, but it’s the government’s fault that the rollout of this new program has been so confusing. The January rollout was botched. Many seniors were confounded as they tried to match their shifting needs with a seemingly endless array of choices. Things have settled down some, but millions of seniors have yet to sign up. A Government Accountability Office audit of the feds’ outreach effort helps explain why.

The GAO found hotlines dispensing erroneous information, an official Web site that was difficult to navigate and brochures and newsletters bogged down in technical jargon. Indeed, the GAO noted that 40 percent of seniors read at or below the fifth grade level, but that the feds’ information is written on levels ranging from seventh grade to post-college.

The penalty for missing the May 15 deadline is brutal: 1 percent of the price of a monthly premium for life for every month missed. The next enrollment period begins in December.

It’s unconscionable for the government to punish seniors for its own missteps.

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