ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the structural components of federal long term care policies and methods of teaching about federal long term care policy. Policy in the United States is seen as a decentralized, incrementalistic process, and as such, it never really reaches, or it seldom reaches, desired ends. It usually is a compromise between that which is desired and ideologically valued and that which is consented to ultimately by a variety of community forces. One of the best ways of teaching about policies is by using a comparative method. The chapter reviews the merits of the comparative approach taken to the study of US long term care policy and examines the components of the course on long term care policy given in the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology. Students look at reforms in terms of projections of costs of long term care and gatekeeping strategies, which are so popular today, income strategies and community-based strategies.
