President Signs Medicare Overhaul Bill, Includes Medicare
Prescription Drug Benefit President Bush signed the Medicare Prescription
Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (H.R. 1) on December 8, 2003,
adding an estimated cost of $410 billion over ten year to the federal budget.
H.R. 1 represented a compromise of separately passed House and Senate bills.
The massive 700-page legislation (MMA) represents the largest expansion of
Medicare since its enactment in 1965, adding a new prescription drug benefit
for all 41 million seniors and people with disabilities who are currently
beneficiaries.
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