The great medical advances of recent decades have made the cost and financing of health care for the aged a ifiatter of national concern. In conjunction with our high and rising level of living, these advances are responsible both for the lengthened life span-which magnifies the problem-and for the widespread recognition that everyone should receive adequate medical care whether or not he can pay for it himself. The aged population will almost surely grow to more than 20 million by 1970, even without further advances in medical science. Today's 17 million aged 65 or older constitute nine per cent of the total population of the United States and fifteen per cent of those of voting age. The health care needs of the aged as a group are much greater than those of a similar-sized group of younger persons. The effects of this increase in the volume of need are intensified by the rising costs of medical care. Modern medical services and drugs are very costly-much more effective, but still also much more costly than the best services available only a few decades ago. Yet in the face of this increased need for costly services the aged in general have lower than average financial resources. The problem which this creates for the aged has been accepted as a proper area for social concern and as representing a community responsibility. The issue has thus become one of the best ways to meet and to distribute the costs of adequate medical care for older persons. Positions long staked-out were reiterated in July and August 1961 before the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives in two weeks of public hearings on the King-Anderson bill for health insurance for the aged, an Administration bill ranking high on President Kennedy's list of "must" legislation. This paper will attempt to analyze, against a background of legislative history, the arguments of those who favor and those who oppose providing protection for
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