1.   An influential federal advisory commission recommended last month that the government increase Medicare payments to doctors, hospitals, home care agencies and health maintenance organizations.

2.   An advisory commission today completed recommendations to U.S. President Bill Clinton on increasing consumer control over coverage decisions by their health insurers.

3.   A federal advisory commission inched toward a fragile consensus Tuesday on a plan to redesign Medicare as a marketplace in which the government would compete with private insurers.

4.   A federal advisory commission, on the other hand, also wants prescriptions covered but would reorganize Medicare to put the insurance function into the hands of private companies.

5.   A federal advisory commission is studying ways to redesign the program to keep it solvent for the baby boom generation.

6.   A presidential advisory commission heard sharply conflicting testimony on Tuesday about whether more government regulation was needed to define and protect the rights of health care consumers.

7.   A presidential advisory commission is drafting a bill of rights for patients.

8.   A report prepared for Congress found serious flaws in the methods used by the Pentagon advisory commission that recommended male and female recruits be separated during basic training.

9.   But observers contend the advisory commissions lack staff, funding and more importantly, clout.

10.   But the history of federal advisory commissions on politically sensitive topics is that the only ones that succeed are the ones that set partisanship aside.