"Significant" changes expected for Medicare

The White House has leaked proposals for reforming the US Medicare program, as part of President George W Bush's administration target of balancing the federal budget by 2012. Among the plans being discussed are more means-testing for Medicare services and budgetary adjustments to take into account the lower-than-expected costs of the Medicare Part D prescription drug program.

The Financial Times newspaper reports that the Republican administration is trying to portray its proposals as similar to the bipartisan reforms of the social security system, which were a 1997 compromise between the Republican-dominated Congress and the then Democratic President, Bill Clinton.

Part D to cost only $964B for next decade