ABSTRACT
Governmental expenditures on the elderly, as well as the political activities of the aged, are being linked with a variety of ills in American life. Public policy on aging in the United States is being changed and challenged. During the 1960s and 1970s, just about every issue or problem that could be identified by advocates as affecting older persons became a governmental responsibility including nutritional, supportive, and leisure services; housing; home repair, and energy assistance. Since 1978, however, the compassionate ageist stereotypoes have become virtually reversed. The new stereotypes are devoid of compassion, and can be readily observed in American popular culture. Health care in the United States has always been rationed informally and based on the availability of resources and the individual conditions and characteristics of patients. But proposals for official policies that would deny care categorically, on the basis of membership in a demographically identified group, are a substantial departure from existing practices.
