ABSTRACT
Major policy issues surrounding the elderly in America are best understood in the context of a gradual federal-state commitment toward the aging population. In America, social welfare policies were born out of incremental government efforts to extend cash assistance, retirement benefits, and health care for selected groups of the poor, the elderly and the medically needy. Beginning in the late 1800s America's elderly gained increased attention as a national concern. With new advances in economics, business practices, technology, science and medicine, a changing perception of the elderly and their potential social contributions emerged. When the declining functions of old age slowed the speed and accuracy demanded in the work place, older workers were discharged. As medical advances documented the physical effects of old age - chronic illness, mental confusion and loss of physical functioning, the aged were seen as incapacitated and enfeebled. American society's view of the elderly, which had once depicted them as healthy and full of moral wisdom and practicality, was reduced to a diminished regard for their potential social contributions. By the turn of the century, with the growing public acceptance of these social concerns, increased public attention was placed on the needs of the elderly (Achenbaum, 1978). As early as 1914, many states adopted social programs meant to serve the health care and social welfare needs of the elderly, but it was not until the great depression of the 1930s that the federal government assumed an active role in social welfare issues through Roosevelt's "New Deal" program.
