<P> The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, also called the Medicare Modernization Act or MMA, is a federal law of the United States, enacted in 2003 . It produced the largest overhaul of Medicare in the public health program's 38 - year history . </P> <P> The MMA was signed by President George W. Bush on December 8, 2003, after passing in Congress by a close margin . </P> <P> The MMA's most touted feature is the introduction of an entitlement benefit for prescription drugs, through tax breaks and subsidies . </P> <P> In the years since Medicare's creation in 1965, the role of prescription drugs in patient care has significantly increased . As new and expensive drugs have come into use, patients, particularly senior citizens at whom Medicare was targeted, have found prescriptions harder to afford . The MMA was designed to address this problem . </P>

The most recent change to medicare was the medicare modernization act of 2003 which added