A Pity There's No Cure For Confusion

As if the pharmaceuticals industry didn’t have enough trouble, old folks remain baffled by the new Medicare program that would help them buy more of the drug companies’ wares. Enrollment for the prescription-drug benefit began last week, but a survey of seniors by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health finds just one in five saying they definitely plan to sign up (see the chart below). Even among people age 65-plus who now have no coverage for prescription drugs, the plan-to-enroll figure was a lackluster 28 percent.