Medicare & Medicaid

In October 2013, open enrollment begins, when people can start signing up for their 2014 coverage through the new state-run health exchanges. But most of the changes in 2013 are tax increases and cuts in tax deductions to pay for the 2014 changes.

Means testing Medicare is one of the few areas where Democrats have shown a willingness to even consider the subject of spending less on the program. But not everyone supports that idea.

Democrats are worried that cuts to the program will go beyond the impact on the people it serves. It will also affect the Affordable Care Act, which calls for expanding Medicaid to as many as 16 million more people. The states are watching closely because the federal government has promised it will pay most of those additional costs.