The Hindu : U.S. Senate passes Bill on Medicare

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 26, 2003

International

International

U.S. Senate passes Bill on Medicare

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON NOV. 25. The United States Senate has passed the $400 billion plan to overhaul Medicare which supporters say will give prescription drug coverage to about 40 million elderly Americans. This is the largest single expansion of the programme that came into effect in 1965.

The measure was passed by a vote of 54 to 44 with prominent Democrats such as Diane Feinstein of California joining the Republicans. But there were conservatives in the Grand Old Party who opposed the measure saying it was far too expensive a proposition. The Bill now goes to the White House for the President's assent.

Republicans leaders who spared no effort in seeing the legislation through called it an "extraordinary day" for the senior citizens and all Americans. But critics like Senator Edward Kennedy slammed the Bill which, he felt, was a "Trojan Horse to reshape Medicare" and a product of a "right wing ideology" to benefit the wealthy. "Let us make the vote today to do the right, rather than the wrong thing," Mr. Kennedy said on the Senate floor prior to the vote. Another senior Democrat, Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, "promised" that this was not the last word on the subject.

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