The Associated Press

LOUISVILLE - Three top Bush administration doctors pitched Medicare modernization Friday that they said would give senior citizens a prescription benefit and better access to treatments.

Surgeon General Richard Carmona, flanked by the heads of two federal health agencies, said seniors deserve "better choices, more benefits." He called on Congress to pass the changes this year.

Carmona toured Jewish Hospital's new outpatient medical center with Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Elias Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health.

The health leaders are traveling the country to promote Medicare changes being hashed out in Congress. Both houses passed legislation this year to add a prescription benefit and promote competition. Private companies would be invited to set up health care plans to compete with Medicare, the federal health insurance program for 40 million Americans - those aged 65 and over and the disabled.