The Aging of America

Aging in America can be tough when you are single without family. MSNBC recently reported on this new phenomenon and how people are coping. As the baby boomers age this country is faced with a whole new set of issues. Never before in history has the seniors out populated every other age group!

More than 31 millions Americans live alone according to the US census, this represents almost one quarter of all US households with at least half of those households containing senior citizens.

Bella DePaulo, author of the book "Singlism" and a visiting professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara looks in detail at the effects of being single and a senior. Her findings indicate that there are more than half of the single senior population is at the least concerned with being single and living alone.

According to Bella De Paulo single seniors worry that they will fall ill and have no one to care for them. Dr. Thomas Amoroso of Tufts University Hospital admitted freely that sometimes the decision to admit a patient or send them home is not really a medical decision but relies heavily on the patients social situation at home. He stated that in some cases I will meet a patient through the ER that has no family and no support at home and they are elderly, this to me sends up a flag so I will order a few more diagnostic tests so they can be admitedý.

If you are a senior that lives alone, you can take steps to insure that you will have the support that you need if you should fall ill. You can start a Care Circle! A Care Circle is a group of people that will visit with sick friends and take up the slack the lack of a family has left behind.

You can also take the time to really visit your health insurance plan. Medicare is not enough! You have to make sure that your health insurance will cover hospice services and home health services. Do it now while you are well and don't have any health problems.

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