The Future of Age-Based Public Policy

by Hudson, Robert B.

• ISBN13: 9780801856600
• ISBN10: 0801856604
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-11-01
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

The past thirty years have seen an extraordinary expansion of federal programming and expenditures on behalf of older Americans. Largely as a result of these efforts, poverty among the aged has fallen three-fold, their real income has jumped 69%, and their access to health care services has doubled. While appreciating what these initiatives have accomplished, however, critics contend that we can no longer afford to see expenditures inexorably rise, because they either 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. Contributors are Robert B. Hudson, Martha Holstein, Neil Howe, John Myles, Robert H. Binstock, Judith G. Gonyea, Robert Morris, Francis G. Caro, Paul Adams, Gary L. Dominick, Eric R. Kingson, Jill Quadagno, Sylvester J. Schieber, Marilyn Moon, Elizabeth A. Kutza, Diane E. Justice, Anna M. Rappaport, Robert Logan, Robert Applebaum, and Monika White.

Author Biography

Robert B. Hudson is professor of social policy, Boston University School of Social Work.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	p. vii
Preface	p. ix
The History and Place of Age-Based Public Policy	p. 1
The Competing Bases for Policy Benefits
Ethics and Public Policy: A Normative Defense of Age-Based Entitlements	p. 25
Why the Graying of the Welfare State Threatens to Flatten the American Dream--Or Worse	p. 36
Neither Rights nor Contracts: The New Means Testing in U.S. Aging Policy	p. 46
The Old-Age Lobby in a New Political Era	p. 56
Public Policy and Population Dynamics
The Emergence of the Oldest Old: Challenges for Public Policy	p. 77
The Young Old, Productive Aging, and Public Policy	p. 91
The Old, the Young, and the Welfare State	p. 104
Policy Arenas and the Place of Age
Social Security: Marketing Radical Reform	p. 117
A New Vision for Social Security: Personal Security Accounts as an Element of Social Security Reform	p. 134
Does Medicare Make Sense as an Age-Related Program?	p. 144
Medicaid: The Shifting Place of Old People in a Needs-Based Health Program	p. 156
The Aging Network: A Balancing Act between Universal Coverage and Defined Eligibility	p. 168
Employer Policy and the Future of Employee Benefits for an Older Population	p. 178
Two Case Studies
Funding Elder Home Care from the Bottom Up: Policy Choices for a Local Community	p. 189
The State of California Linkages Program: Focus on Functional Status	p. 197
Index	p. 203
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