The Elderly and Health Care

Of all the chapters in a book on health care disparities, a chapter on the elderly population would seem to be the least necessary. Those sixty-five and over have the only public system of universal health care in the United States, a country notable for its lack of a national health care system. The elderly as a group have a low poverty rate and many have substantial assets; many have a pension in addition to Social Security. And the elderly as a group have enormous political power. Yet health disparities among the elderly remain.