The conclusion brings the analysis of parent dependency policies to the present. Medicaid expressly prohibited the consideration of family resources, aside from a spouse, in eligibility determinations. State enforcement of responsible relative laws waned by the 1960s. One exception was in California in the early 1970s, when Governor Ronald Reagan pursued responsible relative enforcement for parents of both minor children and adult children in the support of aging parents. Reagan’s campaign to strengthen such laws was clear rejection of the rights discourse in public assistance. These debates persisted during Reagan’s presidential administration and in proposed changes to Medicaid in the 1990s by the nation’s governors. Rethinking our conceptualization of the growing elderly population not as a problem but as an invitation could foster efforts to reimagine how we support aged Americans and the families who provide for them.