Health care for older populations: society's responsibility.

Current and projected costs of health care for the elderly are fluctuating. Federal policy makers bent on containing Medicare and Medicaid costs have a major effect on this economic health care issue. The challenges of financing and providing both acute and long-term care for older persons are intertwined with society's moral and ethical attitudes toward the elderly in general. New approaches to old services as well as innovative financing options for funding or subsidizing health care costs for the elderly are described and analyzed.