coherent medical care bill to Congress. The Conservative Coalition dominated the House Ways and Means Committee, which complicated attempts to pass social health programs. Wilbur Mills (D-AR), the chair of the committee, later played a role in creating the health care program that was integrated into the Social Security Act. In 1960, the Kerr–Mills Act created the Medical Assistance for the Aged (MAA), a program that gave states the power to decide which patients needed financial assistance. The federal government would provide matching funds to the states for the program. Some states did not participate in or abide by the Act. Another preliminary bill, the King–Anderson Bill, was introduced in 1962. Under it, some hospital and nursing home costs for patients 65 and older would have been covered. Although the bill was defeated in committee, the vote was narrow (12–11), signaling a shift in attitudes. Johnson administration With the election of Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, Democrats controlled both the presidency and the Congress, claiming a 2:1 ratio to Republicans in the House and 32 more seats in the Senate. The Democrats in the House Ways and Means Committee shifted away from Southern Democrats, making the committee more sympathetic towards health insurance reform. Those who had worked on the King-Anderson Bill drafted a new bill providing coverage of the aged, limited hospitalization and nursing home insurance benefits, and Social Security financing. Wilbur Cohen, Assistant Secretary for Legislation of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (and later Secretary), pushed the Medicare bill. Cohen convinced Johnson to give the bill high priority, and Johnson declared its importance to his Great Society program. The bill was introduced as companion bills, H.R. 1 and S. 1, with the numbers being the first bills introduced in each house of a new Congress. House of Representatives The groups previously opposed to the legislation switched their focus from opposing the bill to creating new versions of it. As a result, three forms of the bill emerged: John Byrnes's, the American Medical Association's, and the administration's bill (known as Medicare). Byrnes was a Republican committee member who proposed for doctors' services and drugs to be financed; participation in coverage would be voluntary for the aged. An elderly patient who needed the help would have financing "scaled to the amounts of the participant's Social Security cash benefits," and the financing would come from the government's revenues. The AMA