ministry of family and religion. Medicine was just
anotheratoolyoucouldtry,nodifferentfromahealing
ritualorafamilyremedyandnomoreeffective.Butas
medicine became more powerful, the modern hospital
brought a different idea. Here was a place where you
couldgosaying,“Cureme.”Youchecked inandgave
overeverypartofyourlifetodoctorsandnurses:what
youwore,whatyouate,whatwentintothedifferentparts
ofyourbodyand when.It wasn’talways pleasant,but,
forarapidlyexpandingrangeofproblems,itproduced
unprecedentedresults.Hospitalslearnedhowtoeliminate
infections, remove cancerous tumors, reconstruct
shatteredbones.Theycouldfixherniasandheartvalves
and hemorrhaging stomach ulcers. They became the
normalplaceforpeopletogowiththeirbodilytroubles,
including the elderly.
Meanwhile, policy planners had assumed that
establishingapensionsystemwouldendpoorhouses,but
theproblemdidnotgoaway. InAmerica,intheyears
followingthepassageoftheSocialSecurityActof1935,
the number of elderly in poorhouses refused to drop.
Statesmovedtoclosethembutfoundtheycouldnot.The
reasonoldpeoplewoundupinpoorhouses,itturnedout,
wasnot justthat theydidn’thavemoneyto payfor a
home.Theyweretherebecausethey’dbecometoofrail,
sick, feeble, senile, or broken down to take care of
themselvesanymore,andtheyhadnowhereelsetoturn
forhelp.Pensionsprovidedawayofallowingtheelderly
to manage independently as long as possible in their
retirementyears.Butpensionshadn’tprovidedaplanfor
that final, infirm stage of mortal life.