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An issue for voters -- both in this week's New York special election and in the run up to 2012 -- has to do with the differences in the two parties' visions for Medicare's future. After all, Medicare cuts come in all different shapes and sizes.
But the status quo on Capitol Hill doesn't mean that the parties are unwilling to work on health care issues.
We occupy a strange time in U.S. health policy. Over the past two years, assumptions and beliefs that bridged the liberal-conservative health policy divide have been blown apart.
Even as some Republicans distance themselves from the House-passed budget that would fundamentally change the Medicare program, the conservative seniors group 60 Plus' celebrity spokesman Pat Boone is boosting the plan.
Chart depicts percentage of beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans by rating.
Some private plans serving people in Medicare and Medicaid have set up health care centers to help make sure patients get needed treatments and avoid hospitalizations.
A few years ago, federal officials began rating Medicare Advantage plans - using a scale of one to five stars - but seniors' advocates, policy analysts, insurers and some top Medicare officials agree the ratings are flawed. Even so, the star system is about to become more significant.
In the long run, there's no getting around the fact that Advantage plans will shrink in generosity and availability. Anything else would defy a fundamental law of economics that also happens to be a fundamental law of politics: you get what you pay for. And that might not be a bad thing.
The GOP vision for health care reform, as expressed by Rep. Paul Ryan, R- Wis., is to limit federal health care spending to levels far below what they are today, and then let individuals make the best of it. The federal health law not only offers a more realistic approach to controlling costs, but a more humane one.
Are vouchers the same as premium support? Will seniors' health care look like that offered federal workers? A guide to some of the questions and issues in the House Budget chairman's plan.
This year, seniors enrolled in Medicare no longer have to pay for more than a dozen tests and services to prevent disease thanks to the health law. Many, however, aren't lining up for mammograms or colonoscopies though free wellness checks are luring many.
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