Less than two weeks after the start of Medicare’s new drug benefit is too soon to say whether the program will provide the help promised when passed three years ago. But it’s not too soon to see that seniors should be given more time to decide which of the many drug plans offered is best for them. Or even if any of them are. When Congress returns, it should be eager to see that the deadline for extending the signup period is significantly extended.

Part D, as the new drug benefit is known, is the largest expansion of Medicare in its 40-year history. It is made especially complicated by the inclusion of private insurers, who provide a variety of plans that may or may not be applicable to seniors, sowing confusion over the already difficult choice of determining what sort of drug plan a senior will need for the coming years. These difficulties, however, can be solved with time. A Congress that is paying attention can set standards for these plans that seniors can rely on to provide them with affordable medication.

To do that, however, demands that Washington shift from its focus on the politics of these plans -which party wins votes as a result? – to the people they affect. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Bill Nelson of Florida have proposed The Medicare Drug Benefit Protections Act of 2006 to extend the signup deadline from May to December and extend the ability of seniors to change policies if they found they have made a mistake. The bill would permanently create a larger time period each year – two months rather than six weeks – to join a plan and would provide grants to states to help them explain the details of the program to seniors.

This extra time isn’t merely because choosing a Medicare plan can be complicated but because many seniors, in Maine and elsewhere, who have tried to use their new plans found the promised system wasn’t operating as well as it should have beginning Jan. 1. Why, exactly, it didn’t work is a terrific topic for the Government Accountability Office, but generally pharmacists found they had trouble verifying seniors were in any of the approved plans, co-payments often were listed at the wrong level and expected backup coverage wasn’t always apparent.

All of these issues can be repaired and the plans could provide crucial benefits for many seniors. But it will take time for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to work out all the glitches and that means seniors may need more time. The bill by Sens. Snowe and Nelson gives them that and deserves support.