The Ways and Means Committee deliberations on health legislation culminated on March 24, 1965 when the committee voted on draft legislation that Mills had proposed at the March 2 meeting. This tally sheet from the March 24 executive session transcription shows a straight party vote of 17 to 8. The committee approved a bill consisting of three components: Part A mandated hospital coverage for the elderly funded by an increase in payroll taxes; Part B provided voluntary, supplemental coverage for other health costs funded through general revenues; and Part C added a new title to the Social Security Act ( Title XIX, later known as Medicaid) providing federal matching funds for states that were responsible for health coverage for the indigent aged and other groups of the medically needy. On March 29, the Ways and Means Committee reported H.R. 6675. Mills became Medicare’s champion by sponsoring a bill that broadened medical coverage beyond anything Johnson and liberal Democrats believed politically possible in January 1965.

United States. Congress. House. Committee on Ways and Means. "Excerpt of Executive Session Hearing of the Committee on Ways and Means." Excerpt of Executive Session Hearing of the Committee on Ways and Mean, March 24, 1965; Minutes of the House Committee on Ways and Means, Volume 4 of 9; Committee on Ways and Means; 89th Congress; Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, RG 233, National Archives.. Accessed 19 April 2024. https://acsc.lib.udel.edu/items/show/194.