lic Law 89-97 (Medicare) presented a unique opportunity to study several facets of social change because Medicare is a large-scale innovation in the philosophy and method of payment for health and medical care services for the aged. This paper concerns the response to Medicare by a sample of the older population in five selected Midwestern communities. The focus of this report is on (a) awareness of and knowledge about Medicare and (b) expressed attitudes toward the program by older people. Data for this study were collected under the terms of a subcontract with National Analysts, Inc., Philadelphia. Personal interviews were conducted with 2,622 respondents age 60 or older in one metropolitan area, two large cities, and two small cities. The communities were selected to provide information from cities of different sizes with differenceg in medical care

The purpose of this study was to assess the current controversy of support for our rapidly aging population over the next 60 years and the assumptions and measurements used in the discussions of "dependency ratios" that are central to the debate. The President's Commission on Pension Policy is critiqued, as is the possible social security change in receiving full benefits from 65 to 68 years of age. Labor force dependency ratios and society dependency ratios are projected to the year 2050 in order to demonstrate that demographic shifts do not represent any significant increase in the total proportion of groups outside of the "productive" components of the population. Implications of the findings are discussed.

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