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If your answer is "not very well" or "not at all," you are among the majority - even if you are 65 or older and likely qualify for the new benefit.

A recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 53 percent of seniors understood the new law "not too well" or "not well at all." And with 45 percent who said they understand it "somewhat well" or "very well," seniors were leading the pack: Only 33 percent of respondents ages 18 to 64 could say they understood the changes.

"These are important decisions," said Fred Taube, Allen County's Senior Health Insurance Information Program counselor. "People are going to have to decide whether they want to purchase a plan … and which plan to purchase."

To help illuminate the changes in Medicare, The Journal Gazette, WPTA-TV Channel 21 and WISE-TV Channel 33 are hosting a town hall meeting to be broadcast live from The Journal Gazette newsroom and Concord Village on Monday evening.

"There's just utter confusion, really," Francisco said of the new benefit, adding that seniors who do not use the Internet - the Kaiser survey found that 69 percent had never gone online - will be at a major disadvantage.

Taube said his office had received almost 200 calls about Medicare's changes in the past two weeks, with many of them from seniors asking what they are supposed to do to sign up.

Journal Gazette Editor Craig Klugman said the newspaper is hosting the town hall as an extension of its public service commitment to the community, adding the exposure of prime-time television on two channels to the Journal Gazette's coverage of the issue.

"This is so important to so many of our readers - and so complex - that anything we can do to get the word out is so much the better," Klugman said.

The new prescription drug benefit, which is expected to cost taxpayers $400 billion over the next 10 years, subsidizes private health plans that provide prescription coverage. That makes the program a complicated one, and seniors will need to use an online calculator - not yet available - to see which plan is best for them. The town hall meeting will help guide them through the program and explain how it works.

The live, one-hour broadcast will air at 8 p.m. Monday, with Melissa Long anchoring from The Journal Gazette newsroom and Linda Jackson at Concord Village, and it will feature questions submitted by residents.

If you have specific questions about Medicare prescription benefits, you can mail them to: Medicare c/o Karen Francisco, The Journal Gazette, P.O. Box 88, Fort Wayne IN 46801; e-mail them to medicare@jg.net ; or call and leave your question at 461-8251 or 1-800-444-3303, ext. 8251.

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