The Future of Age-based Public Policy

Federal programming and expenditures on behalf of older Americans has expanded since the mid-1960s.

Largely as a result of these efforts, poverty among the aged has fallen three-fold, their real income has increased by 69 per cent and their access to health-care services has doubled.

This text systematically investigates the arguments and issues surrounding these successful and popular programmes.

It examines alternative ideological perspectives on age-related policy; differing levels of need within subpopulations of old persons and between old and young persons; and the characteristics of major age-based and age-related programmes, such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the Older Americans Act.