The future of age-based public policy

"The past thirty years have seen an extraordinary expansion of federal programs and expenditures on behalf of older Americans. Largely as a result of these efforts, poverty among the aged has fallen threefold and real income has jumped 69 percent, and elders' access to health care services has doubled. Although appreciating what these initiatives have accomplished, critics contend that we can no longer afford to see expenditures inexorably rise, because this will preclude balancing the federal budget, imperil the well-being of future generations, or give too central a role to government in promoting individual welfare." "The Future of Age-Based Public Policy is the first book to investigate systematically the arguments and issues surrounding these successful and popular programs. The authors examine 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 our major age-based and age-related programs, such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Older Americans Act. Book jacket."--BOOK JACKET.