Legislative History The concept of chronic illness commenced gaining importance in the national policy field during the first half of the 20th century. This process was inherently linked to a decrease in the burden of infectious diseases and infant mortality (Fallon, 2016). However, as Fallon (2016) states in her review of George Weisz’s book Chronic Disease in the Twentieth Century , non-acute illnesses became a major national health problem also due to the emergence of new practices and tools aimed to detect “silent” sicknesses in adults who seemed to look healthy (p. 239). Besides, the results of surveys conducted in different states identified links between individuals’ welfare and chronic diseases (Fallon, 2016). However, explorations of chronic diseases were initially concerned merely with conditions experienced by working-age people. Thus, many US public health organizations, such as the Commission on Chronic Illness, tended to separate chronic diseases and aging-related health problems and proposed to approach their management and prevention separately (Fallon, 2016). It means that the concept of chronic disease entered the national policy discussion before the 1950s only due to the significance of the issue about the employment-associated and economic challenges. Another important factor that contributed to an increase in the importance of chronic illness within the national policy debate was the expansion of researchers’ interest in the study of such chronic illnesses as osteoporosis. According to Fallon (2016), in the late 1940s-50s, the links between the disorder, menopause, and estrogen loss were found in older women. These findings not only prompted the development of new osteoporosis treatments but also made researchers question the role of the aging process in chronic disease progression (Fallon, 2016). Eventually, aging started to be viewed as “distinct from pathological processes of disease,” whereas clinical interventions began to be regarded as means to prevent pathological aging and promote the healthy one (Fallon, 2016, p. 241). In other words, when it comes to chronic disease in older adults, practitioners and policymakers started to focus more on the maintenance of their functional status and preclusion of disease-associated functional loss. The first policy that directly addressed chronic illness in older adults was the Medicare Amendment to the Social Security Act (1965). Along with Medicaid, Medicare was enacted as “Title XVIII and Title XIX of the Social Security Act, extending health coverage to almost all Americans” of age 65 or more (“Key milestones,” 2005, p. 1). The purpose of the coverage program was to improve the quality of services and enhance access to healthcare among all Americans regardless of their level of income and social status (Huffman & Upchurch, 2018). Clearly, with the enactment of Medicare, more adults of advanced age obtained opportunities to address their chronic health problems. However, despite large population coverage, significant disparities in individuals’ access to care and the incidence of diseases still existed after the implementation of Medicare and Medicaid. Therefore, in 2005 the US go