Medicare, the federal health programme for the elderly, will slash payments to doctors by nearly 30%.

ECONOMIST: Business and America��s fiscal cliff

The same cannot be said for Mr Clinton's plans for Medicare, the public health programme for the elderly.

ECONOMIST: Alas, a bigger surplus doesn��t bring better policies

Both parties have proposals on the table to cover prescription-drugs charges under Medicare, the federal health programme for the elderly.

ECONOMIST: Prescription drugs

Mr Gramm suggests that the money should go instead to replenishing the reserves of Medicare, the health programme for the elderly.

ECONOMIST: Phil Gramm goes shooting

On Medicare, the health programme for the elderly, serious progress looks impossible: the parties are too far apart and the problem too intractable.

ECONOMIST: American politics

The budget committee chairman has also reintroduced a proposal that replaces traditional Medicare, a government healthcare programme for the elderly, with a government subsidy to buy health insurance for those currently under 55.

BBC: Paul Ryan unveils House Republican budget

An AMA board member told a Senate panel hearing last week that the group "strongly opposes" a public, government-run insurance plan that pays physicians at the rates of the Medicare programme for the elderly.

BBC: Obama warns doctors over reforms

For this week the trustees who oversee Medicare, the government's health-care programme for over 40m elderly and disabled Americans, said the programme will be bankrupt by 2019, seven years sooner than previously thought.

ECONOMIST: Medicare