The Senate approved a Medicare bill today that would give prescription drug coverage to 40 million senior and disabled Americans as part of the biggest overhaul to the social program since its creation in 1965. The bill now goes to the White House, where President Bush is expected to sign it into law.

The Medicare bill, in addition to providing prescription drug benefits, provides billions of dollars in subsidies to insurance companies and HMOs, and will require the traditional Medicare program to compete directly with private health plans starting in 2010.

If traditional Medicare costs more, beneficiaries who remain under the government-designed benefit would have to pay higher premiums.

President Bush called the Medicare bill a major victory. “This is a good bill, and I’m looking forward to signing it,” Bush said at Spring Valley Hospital Medical Center before heading to Las Vegas and Phoenix to collect at least $2 million from donors at two private fundraisers. “I’m honored to put my signature on this historic piece of legislation.”

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who led the fight in the Senate against the measure, said the Medicare bill would “force senior citizens into the cold arms of HMOs.” Kennedy said the measure is an assault on both Medicare and Social Security “from a heartless right-wing ideology that ignores the lessons of the past. . . . It sees Medicare as another profit center for HMOs and insurance companies, not a solemn commitment between government and its citizens.”

Most provisions of the bill won’t take into effect for several years. The drug benefit, which would cover about 75 percent of prescription costs up to $2,250 a year, does not take effect until 2006. But next year, seniors will be able to purchase a discount card that could provide 10 to 25 percent off prescription drugs.

(via Washington Post)