[영문]This article describes the lengthy backgroundand debate leading up to the passageof the Medicare Prescription Drug,Improvement and Modernization Act of2003 (MMA). Full implementation of theprescription drug aspect of the law will notbe completed for some time, and final assessmentof its impact awaits a history yet to bewritten. Instead, this article summarizes theefforts of supporters until they finally managedto succeed after being stymied so manytimes in the preceding four decades.