Labour and the Tories faced demands from a broad coalition of charities to end the political point-scoring over care reform and concentrate on finding a "sustainable" solution.
Eighteen charities joined forces to call for a "serious debate" about improving care for the elderly after cross-party talks erupted into a bitter row.
It emerged this week that the health spokesmen of the three main parties had privately discussed the issue and even agreed some shared principles on it.
But attempts at a consensus broke down and the Tories accused Labour of planning a £20,000 "death tax" to pay for social care.
A Conservative campaign poster featuring a gravestone with the slogan "RIP off" was denounced by Health Secretary Andy Burnham as "grubby and desperate". There were angry scenes in the Commons when Gordon Brown and David Cameron went head-to-head on Wednesday.
And Lord Mandelson, the First Secretary of State, accused the Tories of driving a "wrecking ball" through the talks in a bid for short-term political advantage.
Charities including Carers UK, the National Care Forum, Age Concern, Help the Aged, Alzheimer's Society and Macmillan Cancer Support today urged the parties not to reduce the issue to "election soundbites" and "poster slogans".
In a letter to The Times, they said: "The vexed question of who pays is unquestionably difficult, and the solutions may be controversial -- but the costs of failing to act are simply too great to allow the debate needed to be drowned out by party-political squabbling."
They added: "We are in danger of seeing this most important of debates become reduced to election soundbites and poster slogans. (The care) situation is unsustainable, and we must have a serious debate that delivers a long-term solution.
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