"This book is the best text on public policy and aging to come along in a very long time. Well- organized
and written, it should become an excellent text for both undergraduate and graduate students, but also, I predict
it will be used widely as a reference by public policymakers and their staffs at the national and state levels
and for those who are regularly involved in the hurly-burly of the legislative process.
As a former professor, I was impressed that the book is a coherent and rational effort to describe and discuss
the formation of public policy in the USA over much of this century. This, in itself, is no easy task, but the
authors do a fine job of linking the development of public policy with the programs that we find today serving
older people in many areas such as income, health, social services, housing and employment.
The four chapters of the book that discuss Social Security, health care, employment and retirement, and housing
and social services are alone worth the price of the book. The Social Security chapter is scholarly and contains
a rich discussion of the evolution of the Social Security Act from 1935 to the present. The health chapter has
a rich sense of history. Its discussion of the origins of Medicare and Medicaid and the role played by such advocates
of national health insurance as Wilbur Cohen and Nelson Cruikshank in getting Medicare enacted is long overdue
in a public policy text on aging. The employment and retirement chapter includes some in-depth discussions of the
federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the critical area of private pension funding. The chapter on housing
and social services is of equal quality.
Again, this is a fine book. It truly will be a major contribution to the growing literature on public policy
and aging that has begun to emerge in the last decade or so."
--William D. Bechill, former U.S. Commissioner on Aging and Executive Vice-Chair of Save our Social Security
Coalition (SOS)
"Ted Koff has produced a most useful companion on aging issues that combines indispensable history with current
policy dilemmas and a road map through the increasingly complex aging network. It is a most valuable resource for
students as well as practitioners in the field of aging who want to understand the development of aging programs
and their relationship to historical trends and the work of advisory and advocacy groups."
--Dr. Daniel Thursz, President of the National Council on the Aging, Inc.
"Aging Public Policy: Bonding the Generations fills a big hole in the literature. Political scientists, gerontologists,
and other advanced students of Federal policymaking have a wide array of scholarly books at their disposal; from
them, one can get a sense of the complexities and contradictions and challenges that inhere in shaping, implementing,
and evaluating programs for the elderly and other age groups in this aging society. Paradoxically, however, there
is so much technical, discipline-specific information available, that most students become overwhelmed. The principal
virtue of Aging Public Policy is that it was written by two able teachers and communicators for classroom use.
Lucid, balanced, and insightful, this volume will serve many as a helpful introduction to a growing literature
on an important topic."
--W. Andrew Achenbaum, Ph.D., Deputy Director of the Institute of Gerontology and Professor of History at the
University of Michigan
Baywood Publishing Co., Inc. Web Site, December, 2000
Summary
Aging Public Policy: Bonding the Generations is presented in three parts. Part One describes the policy process
as a response to human needs through the laws of our country. Part Two explores the national policy development
on behalf of older persons. Part Three describes the major public policies on behalf of the elderly that include
Social Security, Medicare, The Older Americans Act, institutional care, employment and retirement policies. The
final chapter discusses the advocacy process in the field of aging.
This volume is about public policies that have the greatest influence on the lives of older persons and those that
have been promulgated especially because of concern for older persons. Whether a policy is written on behalf of
the entire population or specifically in response to the needs of a particular segment of the population (i.e.,
the elderly), public policies affect us all. Public policies are in a sense the way we share our concern for the
welfare of the entire society. Providing societal assistance to any one segment of society sets the stage for everyone
to work together to correct problems.
In addition to describing those policies that have the greatest impact on the older population for a broad audience,
the book specifically addresses the evolution of policies as an outgrowth of developments in our society. The processes
by which policies are introduced, debated and established, and the details of specific policies are all discussed.
It is important that public policies represent standards for our lives as individuals, and as a society, that are
based on ethical precepts and regard for the importance of every human being.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part One: The Policy Process: Responding to Human Needs Through Laws
Chapter 1: Constitutional Foundations
Chapter 2: Making Policy in the United States
Chapter 3: Historical Background to Aging Policy
Part Two: Aging Policy Development
Chapter 4: The Aging Network
Chapter 5: Interest and Advisory Groups
Part Three: Major Public Policies on Behalf of the Elderly
Chapter 6: Social Security
Chapter 7: Health Care Policies
Chapter 8: Coordinated System of Chronic Care
Chapter 9: Employment and Retirement
Chapter 10: Housing and Social Services
Part Four: The Advocacy Process in The Field of Aging: Policies for the Future
