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

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