Medicare plans, policies draw analysis, voters' interest

News outlets report on how Medicare and other health policy issues will play in the presidential debates; on similarities and differences between the candidates' Medicare plans; and offer tips for reporters trying to cover this complicated issue.

Los Angeles Times: Presidential Debate Questions Sync Up With Voter Concerns
A new Pew Research Center polling analysis, released Monday, finds that the economy is voters' dominant concern in this fall's presidential election. An overwhelming proportion 87% said the economy would be "very important" to their vote … On healthcare, a matter of greater importance for women than for men, recent polling by the Pew Center found that Obama holds an advantage over Romney when voters were asked which candidate would do a better job of dealing with the issue. The same goes for Medicare, which ranked sixth in importance for swing voters (West, 9/24).

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Medicare Spending Cap Likely Under Obama Or Romney 
President Barack Obama and former Gov. Mitt Romney each have vowed not to cut Medicare benefits. Yet both have proposed capping increases in Medicare spending in coming years to the rate of growth in the gross domestic product plus 0.5% - well below Medicare's historic rate of 2.5 percentage points above GDP growth from 1975 through 2008. Underlying both candidates' proposals is the expectation - or maybe hope - that the health care system will become much more efficient in coming decades (Boulton, 9/24).

Medicare Newsgroup: Medicare Leaders Advisory Board Advice To Journalists
To help journalists sort through a welter of confusing assertions, The Medicare NewsGroup turned to its new Medicare Leaders Advisory Board, a group that includes two former heads of the Medicare program, the former head of its payment office and the former chair of an advisory commission to Congress and the president on the program. … The question we asked them was this: "What context should journalists have in order to evaluate competing Medicare reform proposals?" [The group includes Stuart Altman, Robert Berenson, William Roper and Gail Wilensky] (9/24).