2000: The Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act (BIPA) of 2000 further increased Medicare payments to providers and Medicare+Choice plans, reduced certain Medicare beneficiary copayments, and added covered preventive services. BIPA also enabled people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease) to enroll in Medicare upon diagnosis instead of having to satisfy the 24-month waiting period.

2000:
• Medicare Part A deductible: $776/year
• Medicare Part B premium: $54.40/month
• Total Medicare population: 39.7 million beneficiaries

2001: Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson, renamed HCFA, which became the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Medicare began covering people with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease).

2002: The Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, along with other public health measures, temporarily moved deadlines for submitting Medicare+Choice plan information. The law stated that in 2005, individuals enrolled in M+C plans would only be able to make and change elections to an M+C plan on a more limited basis, which was later changed by the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003.

•Part A Deductible: $812/year
•Standard Part B Premium: $54.00/month
•Medicare Advantage Enrollment: 5.0 million
•Total Medicare Beneficiaries: 40.5 million
•Total Medicare Spending: $230 billion

2003: December 8, 2003 The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) was passed by the House (220-215) and the Senate (54-44) in November and signed into law (Public Law 108-173) by President Bush on December 8, 2003, providing a new outpatient prescription drug benefit under Medicare beginning in 2006. In the interim, it created a temporary prescription drug discount card and transitional assistance program. The MMA also established a new income-related Part B premium for beneficiaries with higher incomes (beginning in 2007), indexed the Part B deductible, created regional PPOs under the Medicare Advantage program (previously named Medicare+Choice), along with financial and other incentives for private health plans to contract with Medicare. The MMA also established a new way of assessing Medicare's financial status by looking at general revenues as a share of total Medicare spending.

Presidential remarks during the signing ceremony

• Part A Deductible: $840/year
• Standard Part B Premium: $58.70/month
• Medicare Advantage Enrollment: 4.6 million
• Total Medicare Beneficiaries: 41.2 million
• Total Medicare Spending: $273 billion

2004: A temporary Medicare-Approved Drug Discount Card Program began along with a transitional assistance program to provide a $600 annual credit to low-income Medicare beneficiaries without prescription drug coverage in 2004 and 2005.

• Part A Deductible: $876/year
• Standard Part B Premium: $66.60/month
• Medicare Advantage Enrollment: 4.7 million
• Total Medicare Beneficiaries: 41.9 million
• Total Medicare Spending: $295 billion