Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton will join members of Wisconsin's congressional delegation this week in Washington to push for the renewal of SeniorCare, the state drug program.

SeniorCare is scheduled to expire June 30 and current participants — eligible low-income Wisconsin residents over age 65 — would have to apply for the federal Medicaid Part D program for prescription assistance.

Supporters of Wisconsin's program, which includes legislative leaders from both political parties, say its coverage is better than Plan D and much less confusing.

"The simple fact is that SeniorCare works," Lawton said in a statement. "If we let it expire, more than 100,000 of our seniors will be forced into Part D, which is twice as expensive for our taxpayers, not to mention confusing, complicated and bogged down in red tape."

Barbara Bowers, a University of Wisconsin professor in the School of Nursing, said millions of seniors around the country choose to go without Part D because it is too difficult to apply.

"It's a very, very complicated program," Bowers said. "It's kind of like applying for college — you just get swamped with application materials."

Bowers, who teaches UW students about Medicaid and Part D, said younger generations might often be recruited by their elders to assist in the application process, since parts of it must be completed using computers.

But supporters of SeniorCare renewal point to the program's cost benefits.

According to Lawton's press statement, the average annual federal subsidy for a SeniorCare participant is $617. The average Part D participant costs the federal government $1,174.

"It's time for the Bush administration to step up to the plate for our seniors," Lawton said in a statement. "Our program works because we use the state's purchasing power to negotiate

cost containment measures. If President Bush doesn't want to contain costs, that's up to him, but he shouldn't force that bad decision on seniors in Wisconsin."

Last October, Gov. Jim Doyle submitted a formal request to U.S. Department of Health and

Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt to extend SeniorCare through June 30, 2010.