Last Call For Medicare Drug Signup

(CBS)  At the Trinity Baptist Church in Richmond, Va., 50 senior citizens arrived first thing Monday morning. As CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports, the seniors were all in a rush to beat the Medicare signup deadline.

Volunteers from the National Council on Aging took over the meeting hall, ... and braced for the rush. Linda McGowan chose a plan for her father, who has dementia. She delayed until the very end. She says the deadline was the reason she was signing up.

"I've been reading and thinking I was OK and I didn't need to do it," she says. "The deadline did it."

But for many seniors, the problem wasn't procrastination — it was confusion.

This huge new government benefit, called Medicare Part D, is administered through private insurance companies — all with different levels of coverage, costs and rules. Some seniors said the complexity of it all scared them away. One said he "couldn't get the proper information. I'd call and I wouldn't get through and didn't understand most of it."

Democrats have seized on that confusion to demand an extension. But as of now, tonight's deadline stands.

What makes the deadline so controversial is the financial penalty that it brings. The penalty is 1 percent for every month that a senior citizen is eligible but does not sign up. A senior citizen who waits just over two years for example, faces a 25 percent surcharge — for life.

In a last-minute appeal, First Lady Laura Bush and Medicare officials were out on Monday, assuring seniors they still have until midnight local time. Any senior citizen who has not enrolled is being urged to call 1 800-MEDICARE.