Public Policy & Aging E-Newsletter
Volume 1, Number 2, March 2007
This bimonthly e-newsletter highlights key developments and viewpoints in the field of aging policy from a wide variety of sources, including articles and reports circulating in the media, academy, think tanks, private sector, government and nonprofit organizations.
The goal of this email publication is to reach teachers, students, and citizens interested in aging-related issues, especially those who may not have access to policy information disseminated both in Washington and around the country.
I. WHAT’S HAPPENING IN WASHINGTON?
A. The President’s Plan for Health Care Reform: Click here to view a fact sheet summary of the President’s plan for “affordable, accessible, and flexible health coverage.”
B. The President’s FY 2008 Budget Proposal: Click here to view excerpts from the budget highlighting key Medicare, Medicaid, and Older Americans Act proposed spending levels.
C. Health Coverage Coalition for the Uninsured: A new coalition of the largest physician, hospital, business, insurance, pharmaceutical, and consumer organizations in the U.S. has announced a historic agreement to work together to expand health coverage for the uninsured. Click here to learn more.
II. WHAT’S HAPPENING AROUND THE COUNTRY?
A. State of the States 2007: This new report from AcademyHealth offers a nationwide review of the state-based health care reform movement. Click here to view.
B. Health Care for America: Click here to read Jacob Hacker’s proposal for guaranteed, affordable health care for all Americans building on Medicare and employment-based insurance (from the Economic Policy Institute’s ‘Agenda for Shared Prosperity’ initiative).
C. California Governor’s Health Care Proposal: Click here to view Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s vision for health reform.
III. THIS ISSUE'S MAJOR POLICY STORY: HEALTH CARE REFORM
Historians of aging-related policymaking make better Monday morning quarterbacks than political and social forecasters. But the historical moment seems right for lawmakers and informed citizens to re-consider the century-long quest for a universal health-insurance initiative. It is likely that we will reform programs at the state and national level already in place. To this end, I have read several books that deepened my understanding of the complexities of the situation. I recommend some to you and to your students:
1. Jill Quadagno, One Nation, Uninsured: Why the U.S. Has No National Health Insurance (Oxford University paperback, 2006). Glum but balanced, Quadagno thinks that politics since the Progressive era has made it difficult to implement comprehensive coverage.
2. James A. Morone and Lawrence R. Jacobs, Healthy, Wealthy, & Fair: Health Care and the Good Society (Oxford University, 2005). A cogent and lucid case for why the U.S. needs national health insurance.
3. David Mechanic, Lynn B. Rogut, and David C. Colby, eds., Policy Challenges in Modern Health Care (Rutgers University, 2005). Twenty five experts grapple with a wide range of issues, including the nursing shortage, rationing, and insurance gaps especially among the disadvantaged.
4. Michael E. Porter and Elizabeth Olsted Teisberg, Redefining Health Care: Creating Value Based Competition on Results (Harvard Business School, 2006). The authors propose ways to allocate resources based on patient value over the cycle of care.
– Andy Achenbaum
IV. WORTH NOTING
A. Retirement Policy by the Numbers: Click here to view a series of charts prepared by The Urban Institute that address trends in labor force participation rates, potential consequences of an aging workforce, and the difficulties and benefits of working longer. (Click here for a link to download the underlying data)
B. Data Sources on Older Americans: Click here to view a summary of government-sponsored surveys and products containing statistical information about the older population compiled by the Federal Inter-Agency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics.
C. National Clearinghouse for Long-Term Care Information: Click here to view a new web site developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide information and resources to help individuals and their families plan for future long-term care (LTC) needs.
V. WHAT'S HAPPENING ABROAD?
A. Accounting for the Cost of Health Care in the United States: This new report from the McKinsey Global Institute examines why the United States spends approximately $480 billion ($1,600 per capita) more on health care than other OECD countries, and considers potential strategies for health care reform in the U.S. Click here to view. (access requires site registration—free—and includes interactive graphic overview of the report)
B. United Nations Economic and Social Council: Click here to view the Report of the Secretary General on “Major Developments in the Area of Ageing since the 2002 Second World Assembly on Ageing.”
VI. PERSPECTIVES ON POLICY: ROB HUDSON, EDITOR, PP&AR
At a time when many Americans are alleged to have become increasingly isolated and apathetic, a "new" senior population is emerging, one marked by better health, vast experience, and expressing widespread distain toward joining "a reserve army of the leisured." Rather than being identified with the "deficit model of aging," which centers on needs and benefits, the recent civic engagement movement sees older adults as a population fully capable of being productive and contributing to American life.
The current issue of Public Policy & Aging Report explores the promise of senior participation while also acknowledging its potential pitfalls. Sabrina Reilly from the National Council on Aging, together with excerpts from a new Senior Service America report, provides front-line perspectives on how older Americans are meaningfully engaging in community activities. Andy Achenbaum places civic engagement in an historical context, discussing how organizations like Civic Ventures can and do build on those historical concerns. I contribute a political analysis, noting how commentators on the right and left view elders' civic engagement and the larger purposes it might serve. Finally, Martha Holstein outlines the collective fate that might befall older people - women in particular - should the civic engagement mantra redefine the social and economic place of elders in American life.
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Newsletter Editors: Ellyn Emsley and Greg O'Neill, National Academy on an Aging Society; Andy Achenbaum, University of Houston.
The Public Policy and Aging E-Newsletter is supported in part by a grant from the AARP Office of Academic Affairs.