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Is America Exporting Another New Social Idea?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2018

Harold L. Sheppard ,
John F. Myles  and
Larry Polivka
Harold L. Sheppard
Affiliation:
Department of Gerontology, College of Arts and Science, University of South Florida, 4202 East Fowler Avenue, SOC 107, Tampa, Florida 33620-8100, U.S.A.
John F. Myles
Affiliation:
Florida State University, Tallahassee
Larry Polivka
Affiliation:
Florida Policy Exchange, Center on Aging, University of South Florida, Tampa
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Abstract

The focus in the United States on ‘setting limits’ to the provision of such services as health care for old people may be spreading to Europe. This article points up the empirical deficiencies in some of the unexamined assumptions in such proposals, especially the belief that an inordinate share of medical expenditures occur in the final weeks or months of elderly patients. The setting-limits doctrine is viewed as a subset of broader socio-political-ideological thrusts aimed at (or resulting in) anti-elderly, intergenerational-conflict policy proposals. Such proposals should be evaluated in terms of their social constructionist, partially contrived, and historically distorted bases. Apocalyptic gerontology needs to be weighed in terms of its moral implications.

Keywords

Setting limitselderly health care costsintergenerational conflict
Type
Forum
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 16 , Issue 5 , September 1996 , pp. 603 - 612
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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