If that same spending rate was sustained for 1991, the Medicare budget would grow to $130 billion.

But to make any judgment at all about the two plans requires some grounding in the $200-billion-a-year Medicare budget.

President Bush has proposed cutting $5.5 billion from the money that would otherwise be allocated to the total Medicare budget next year.

But even if he is wrong, Medicare spending would still be constrained by the global Medicare budget.

The Medicare budget really is the linchpin of deficit reduction.

To meet the health care needs of all America's seniors, we double the Medicare budget over the next 10 years.

Diabetes accounts for 25% of the Medicare budget.

Almost 30 percent of the nation's entire Medicare budget is spent during patients' last year of life.

Home care now accounts for only 4 percent of the total Medicare budget.

Limiting acute care at the end of life would save only a small fraction of the Medicare budget.