For the first time since the debut of a Medicare prescription drug discount card earlier this month, a group of Maine seniors will head to Canada still in search of lower prices.

“Seniors wanted a true prescription drug plan and that’s not what they’re getting,” said Neena Quirion, executive director of the Maine Council of Senior Citizens, which is sponsoring next week’s bus trip. “Evidently the Bush administration cares more about pharmaceutical companies than seniors.”

The June 2 trip will come a week and a day after the release of two reports finding increases in drug costs substantially higher than the rate of inflation. Critics say the increases raise questions about the ability of the Medicare benefit to provide the level of savings promised by its supporters – chief among them the Bush administration.

In an election year, such questions can become political liabilities, and a spokesman for Bush’s Democratic opponent was quick to pan the Medicare drug plan as ineffective. Jesse Derris of the John Kerry campaign also lamented the continued need for bus trips to Canada.

“John Kerry will build a stronger America by putting our seniors ahead of drug company profits,” Derris said. “As president, helping all seniors afford prescription drugs will be among John Kerry’s top priorities.”

Derris said Kerry’s plan would allow the federal government to ensure lower drug costs by negotiating better prices with the drug companies, which is currently prohibited under the Medicare drug bill backed in large part by Republican lawmakers.

Bush campaign officials note that Kerry, campaigning at the time, didn’t even vote on the Medicare drug plan, which received bipartisan support in the Senate.

The cards, unveiled two weeks ago, will become effective June 1. But many seniors have complained of confusion when deciding which of the 73 discount cards currently available best fits their needs. The cards come at an annual fee of up to $30 and were meant to save seniors between 10 percent and 25 percent on their drug costs.

White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said Wednesday that the savings available through the Medicare drug card are substantial, allowing millions of elderly citizens to save on their prescription costs.

“It is long overdue,” said Lisaius, adding that seniors with questions should visit the government’s Web site, www.medicare.gov.

John Carr, president of the group organizing next week’s bus trip, said any savings under the Medicare plan pale in comparison to those found in Canada, where traveling seniors, for a $35 fee, stand to save about 50 percent on their prescription costs.

The Medicare drug cards will be in effect until 2006, when private insurers, subsidized by the government, will provide broader drug converge for seniors under the new law.

Selling the law to the American public recently has proved more controversial than the law itself.

Last week the General Accounting Office found that the Bush administration violated federal law when it used taxpayer money to produce television segments portraying the new Medicare law as beneficial to seniors. In its ruling, the agency, an investigative arm of Congress, called the videos a form of “covert propaganda,” because the source of the information was not identified.

Administration officials disagreed with the GAO findings, noting that television stations were aware of the source. The GAO has no law enforcement authority.