The Gerontologist, Vol 36, Issue 1 33-35, Copyright © 1996 by The Gerontological Society of America
The changing face of aging politics
RB Hudson
The future of aging politics and age-based public policy are in
considerable turmoil. Traditional age-based health and social service
policies, such as those long associated with Medicare and the Older
Americans Act, have increasingly moved in the direction of functional
means-testing, through the use of activity-of-daily-living scales and
similar mechanisms. Renewed pressure in the income area is also pointing in
that direction, whether through benefit taxation (President Clinton) or
means-testing of benefits (Concord Coalition). Yet, how this reining in of
old age benefits plays out against the real or presumed power of older
voters (cf. AARP and Gingrich proposal) remains an intriguing question. As
they say, "stay tuned."
