Provides an explanation of Social Security and Medicare, explaining the dilemmas facing policymakers and describing, through historical development, how the programmes evolved and their present status. Included are discussions of the financing problems, adequacy of protection and fairness.

Kingson and Berkowitz are convincing not only because of their cogent and effective use of empirical data, but because of the compassion which permeates their writing. Their obvious commitment to protecting a highly vulnerable group of citizens persuasively supports the argument that social insurance is currently the best mechanism for meeting this goal. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare