Republicans are using town meetings and other outreach efforts to try to tamp down senior citizens' outrage over the complicated and troubled new Medicare prescription drug program, as they look warily toward the November elections and the possibility of a political backlash.

Here in western New York, Georgie Bifarella, 78, had a strong message for Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (R-N.Y.) during a recent community workshop on the drug benefit: "I think it stinks." Like many other of the 75 elderly citizens at the session, Bifarella was frustrated by the program's thicket of rules and restrictions, including the penalty for Medicare recipients who enroll in a plan after the current May 15 deadline.

But after a Reynolds district director took Bifarella aside after the meeting and patiently responded to her concerns and put in a plug for one of the least expensive plans, Bifarella replied: "I still don't understand the darn thing, but I guess now I'll look around for something like that."

Both parties struggled for years to fill the most glaring gap in Medicare coverage -- prescription medications -- but the Republican-led Congress finally pushed drug coverage over the finish line in December 2003. Democrats complained that the benefit was underfunded and represented a handout to the drug and insurance industries. On Jan. 1, the new benefit took effect.

"We promised -- and we produced," said Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. "But this is a big job. We need to help people get plugged in."

Nearly three weeks into the start of the new program, tens of thousands of elderly and disabled Americans, their pharmacists and their governors are struggling to resolve start-up problems, many of which have resulted in people being turned away or being overcharged. The uproar prompted some states to cover the drug costs of some of the 6.4 million low-income seniors, who until Dec. 31 received their medication free but who now faced a maze of large deductibles, co-payments and outright denial of coverage.

Last weekend, the Bush administration intervened by reminding pharmacists and insurers to guarantee that low-income seniors were to receive their drugs for a nominal co-payment. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and other top administration health advisers began fanning out across the country this week to try to quell mounting discontent with the program.

"You can hear the groans everywhere," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, who held a Medicare event in his Chicago district last week.

Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, said a survey in December found that although a plurality of voters favors the program, seniors are more likely to perceive the benefit as complicated and costly.

Nor is there any assurance that the Republicans' rollout will diminish widespread concerns. As the midterm elections approach, Kohut said, "This could be either the one thing that people say either, 'Wow, they really accomplished something here,' or they say, 'Look at what the Republicans have done. They've fattened up their insurance buddies and left us out in the cold.' "

The prospect of a crisis in the Medicare drug program, coming during a congressional corruption scandal and a shake-up of the House GOP leadership, is politically terrifying to some Republicans. This helps to explain why so many GOP lawmakers invested a large portion of the winter recess trying to calm down their elderly constituents.

"In sheer volume of outreach, I can't think of anything that compares in recent memory," said George Kelemen, campaign manager for AARP's outreach effort.

"This is not easy," Reynolds told a group of 40 seniors at a workshop in Brockport, N.Y. "This is the first change of any major magnitude" to the Medicare program, which was created in 1965. "There will be an initial uneasiness."

In Connecticut, the Department of Social Services is conducting an average of 100 enrollment-related events per month, hosting them at senior centers, libraries and churches. The focus is providing one-on-one assistance to enable seniors to plug their drug needs into a coverage calculator on the Medicare.gov Web site. If the location is not Internet-equipped, the agency will drive equipment to the site in a specially outfitted bus.

Rep. Nancy L. Johnson (R-Conn.) helped write the drug benefit legislation, which has made her a major target of Democrats in this year's campaign. Like Reynolds, she believes seniors are becoming more accepting, and credits the intensive counseling effort along with the savings that participants are beginning to see.

"I've met seniors in my district who will save up to $5,000 a year," Johnson said. "As this news spreads, more and more seniors are going to sign up and get the help they need and deserve."

Despite the negative reaction and unfavorable media accounts, there are signs, Reynolds and his GOP colleagues said, that the mood among seniors is shifting -- signs that give Republicans hope that the benefit will be perceived as a neutral, or even positive force, by voters in November.

Last fall, during the first round of workshops, the crowds were overflowing and rowdy, and people did not grasp basic facts -- including whether spouses could pick separate plans. Now the audiences are smaller, the questions more detailed.

Seniors still do plenty of complaining, but they take a more practical view, showing up with notepads and no longer stumbling over jargon. For example, seniors who attended Reynolds's sessions knew all about the "doughnut hole" -- a gap in coverage from $2,250 to $5,100 that many plans feature.

Reynolds's workshops featured presentations by officials from the Social Security Administration and from state and local senior services agencies, but their tone was closer to a group therapy session, with the congressman commiserating along with his constituents about various glitches.

One frail-looking woman, who was hooked up to an oxygen tube, told Reynolds that she needed help comparing plans: "I tried to look on Medicare.gov, but it said I didn't have enough browser capacity." He nodded and replied, "We need phone lines. We're on that."

Some at the workshops had done extensive homework. Sally Robins, 74, arrived at the Batavia session having already compared several plans' deductibles and co-payments, and wanted to double-check a few assumptions before deciding.

"I learned exactly what I needed to know," Robins said after huddling with a state health care official for about 10 minutes.

When Carol Arlidge and Ann Rogger arrived at the Brockport meeting, they had given the benefit little thought. Arlidge's medication bills are low, and Rogger had been taking care of her ailing husband, who recently died.

Afterward, they said they were eager to get started -- a conversion that Republicans can only hope is typical. "This was so helpful," Rogger said. "I'm going to get on this and figure it out."