Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
- Between 2010 and 2030, the number of older Americans will double, to 72.1 Million.
- For the first time in history, people over 65 will outnumber children under 5
- According to a CA Dept. of Aging report, by 2020, more Californians will see their 86thbirthday. Of the Stateās 58 counties, 38 (including LA) will have increases of more than 150 percent, 26 will have increases of more than 200 percent, and 11 will have over a 300 percent increase in the number of persons aged 85 and older...and the first Baby Boomer doesnāt turn 85 until 2031.
Americaās population is growing older. It is estimated that by 2050, people over 65 will represent more than 20 percent of the population, up from 15 percent today. That shift may not sound significant, but it represents about 40 million additional Medicare-age patients flooding the already beleaguered U.S. healthcare system. This flood, the so-called āsilver tsunamiā will be driven partially by advances in medicine that are helping people live longer, but also by the Baby Boomers, people born during the population spike after World II who are reaching old age.
A few years ago, I didnāt give it a thought. Becoming a senior seemed very far away. And if it ever did happen, I always joked, I had every intention of making my seven children take care of me in my advanced years.
But I realize, more strongly the older I become, that I donāt want to be under the care and control of my children and their partners. I want to be with friends my own age, people who actually remember Doris Day and Rock Hudson.
Another realization hit when my mother went into long-term care. She remarried at 80 and had six glorious years with her new partnerāthen she had a stroke. She needed physical care. The choice was between a private facility where both could live, for $6,000 a month, and subsidized care, where she would be separated from the love of her life. They didnāt have $6,000 a month, so he lived in one place and she lived in another. While weāre told that we live in a society that supports families, we divide them in the way we set up long-term care.
Not only were they separated, but my mother was locked in the building. Many of the homeās residents were living with dementia, so none were permitted to leave unless they were accompanied by an adultāwhich, it was assumed, they werenāt
