No wonder seniors are confused. To help them save money on prescription drugs, the federal government rolled out a national program that requires senior to sign up for a discount card. Problem is there are now 73 competing cards and figuring out which one to sign up for by June 1 is confusing at best and outright angering at worst.

The discount card confusion is another sign that attempting to control drug prices without really controlling drug prices is foolhardy. Just as Congress is now debating whether to legalize the importation (or in some cases re-importation since many of the medications were made in the United States) of lower cost drugs from other countries, the idea behind allowing discount cards to be at the whim of the market is flawed. The fundamental problem is that American consumers are paying too much for prescription medications. The way to solve this is to negotiate lower drug prices with manufacturers, which most other developed countries already do, not to jerry-rig schemes to compensate for the high prices charged Americans.

The cards, unveiled last week and costing $30, are meant to save seniors 10 to 25 percent on their drug purchases. Low-income retirees who meet income guidelines (less than $12,500 for individuals, $16,800 for couples) will see some benefit from the program. In addition to the discount card, they are eligible to get their first $600 worth of medicine free.

But, picking the right card, however, is basically impossible. Seniors can sign up for only one card and can change cards only once a year. Medicare participants can log on to a web site, medicare.gov or call 1-800-MEDICAR to access price lists for the drugs they are taking. However, many providers have already complained that the prices listed are wrong, usually too high. Making the situation worse, companies can change their prices at any time, so a consumer could choose a card because it had the best price on the diabetes drug Glucophage only to find that the price rose a week later.

The situation for Maine seniors is a bit better because the Department of Human Services is doing the homework for many of them. DHS will pick a preferred card for Maine. Seniors who are already enrolled in the state’s low-cost drug program will automatically be signed up for this preferred card unless they object.

The drug cards are a stop-gap measure put in place until 2006 when broader drug coverage for seniors will be provided by private insurers and partially subsidized by the government under the Medicare bill passed by Congress last year. That bill prohibited the federal government from negotiating lower drug prices.

Sen. Olympia Snowe is rightly trying to remove that prohibition. Along with Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, she introduced legislation earlier this year that would give the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services the authority to negotiate lower drug prices for participants in the Medicare program.

“If the Medicare drug benefit is going to work best for seniors, we need to bring down exploding drug costs. Lower drug prices means lower premiums, less money spent out-of-pocket, and a better Medicare drug benefit,” Sen. Wyden, a Democrat, said when the bill was introduced in February.

There should be no confusion that this is a better approach than the “pick-a-card” scheme now facing many seniors.