NEW YORK (CNN) - The prescription-drug bill vigorously pushed by President Bush aroused a great deal of attention and controversy when it was being debated by Congress, and then after its passage.

But a new survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that more than two-thirds of Medicare recipients don't even know that the program's new prescription-drug benefit has actually been signed into law, which, of course, it was last December.

And even though they might not know it has been enacted, a majority of those surveyed don't like it. Fifty-five percent said their impression was unfavorable, while only 17 percent had a favorable impression.

Perhaps even more significant, among those who knew the drug benefit had become law, 73 percent had an unfavorable view. I think the Medicare-drug program will be a hot-button issue in the Presidential campaign, along with Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's views Wednesday on extending the Social Security retirement age and cutting future benefits.

Senior citizens are very sensitive about anything affecting pensions and health care, and it's worth noting that seniors vote in greater numbers than those in other age groups.

The head of the Kaiser Foundation says the lack of understanding about the new drug benefits -- which don't fully kick in until 2006 -- makes the issue ripe for political demagoguery from both major parties. He notes that the President will say he delivered a good prescription drug law, while the Democratic candidate will say it's a bad law. But if seniors don't understand it, how are they to judge its merits?

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However, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson says the more that Medicare beneficiaries know about the new law, the more they like it.

In that regard, the Bush Administration is spending $12 million on an advertising campaign in support of the law and an additional $10 million on a mass mailing to the nation's 40 million older and disabled Americans.

Opponents of the law have enlisted Walter Cronkite to take part in a video that will be sent to 10,000 retirement communities and senior citizen centers across the nation.

I repeat: One thing is certain. Medicare and Social Security will be hot issues in the forthcoming presidential and congressional campaigns.  

Myron Kandel is Financial Editor for CNN.