The Medicare prescription drug legislation moved closer to passage in Congress today, as Senate supporters turned back attacks launched by opponents. The bill would make the most sweeping changes in Medicare since its creation in 1965 by providing a prescription drug benefit for the program's beneficiaries and giving insurance companies broad leeway to offer private coverage to 40 million elderly and disabled Americans. Susan Foote is the director of the division of Health Services Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. She says that, while the numbers are shifting as the bill moves closer to passage, the benefit would require significant contributions from individual Medicare recipients.