Federal Policies and the Poor

Abstract

A 15-year trend of increased federal commitment to funding health care for the poor and elderly was reversed in September 1982 when President Reagan signed massive spending reductions into law. State governments have followed the federal lead in cutting health care expenditures that serve people with limited incomes. Iglehart discusses the impact of this change in health policy in terms of dollar amounts of Medicaid and Medicare cuts, administration attacks on other entitlement programs that serve the poor and elderly, stricter eligibility rules that will disqualify some recipients previously receiving aid, and the growing poverty population in the United States. (KIE abstract)