ABSTRACT
Two factors cause policymakers to worry about the future of health policy for the elderly: the growing number of the elderly and their health status. The central structural constraints on future health policy for the elderly include the health care system, the changing shape of federalism, the fiscal crisis of the state, and deregulation. While the Reagan administration has proposed various program changes that would have sharply limited the federal role in the health and welfare of the population, actual changes have followed a historically incremental course. The cost-containment strategies under New Federalism have created conditions that further the medicalization of health services for the elderly. The medical-industrial complex has been able to grow because medical care programs for the elderly and poor have bought into the existing medical system rather than establishing a national health service. The medicalization of health care deflects concern with health issues of inner city children such as lead poisoning, nutrition, and mother-and-child health promotion.
