Related bills in the current 113th Congress

1. Please use the search engine we talked about in the first class and find any aging related bills in the current 113th Congress. And then please summarize three of them. (5 points)

2. Please read the report California Health Care Almanac 2013. The Bar chart on page 6 shows that personal care has the highest increase in use. The second highest increase is observed for Waiver Services. The bar charts on the following page (#7) show that the number of NF beds decreased in CA in comparison with little change for the entire US. Finally, the chart on page 11 shows that there has been a steady increase in the number of patients discharged to home. Please explain the phenomena seen in the charts. Please describe various programs behind the trends. (20 points)
3. Use Kingdon’s model to explain the agenda settings behind the Older Americans Act of 1965 (PL 89-73) and MMA (PN 108-173). (10 points)
4. Use Wilson’s model to explain why and how the Social Security Act and its pension program have been in place for 79 years. (10 points)
5. Of the theories we discussed in class throughout the semester, which theory do you think is most appropriate for the current fragmented long-term care system. (10 points)
6. Please talk about the hospice paradigm shift in detail. You can use the CA example. Please use one or two models in order to facilitate your reasoning. (10 points)
7. The female elderly tends to outlive the male elderly. The gender gap in life expectancy widens even further as the elderly gets older and older (e.g. over 80). What implications does this trend have for programs and services for the very elderly? (10 points)

8. There are five major political science schools of thoughts. Which thought do you think most significantly has affected US current aging (and welfare/health in general) policies? (10 points)

9. Please explain two long-term care public/private partnership models. (5 points)

10. If disability is a gap between a person’s abilities and their environment, how would you approach to fill the gap? Do you have any policy ideas? (10 points)