Bracing for the Wave of Aging Boomers.

Planners liken the coming age wave, minus a workable plan, to Hurricane Katrina. Why?

“Because Katrina was a disaster”, said Loren Colman, assistant commissioner of continuing care for the Minnesota Human Services Department. He’s one of several state and community leaders working to avert catastrophe as members of the huge baby-boom generation, born from 1946 to 1964, move into old age.

 

By 2030, one in five citizens will be older than 65. That equation will create a society with far more people of a certain age than the state or the country has ever had before. A promise of growing longevity pumps up the concerns. “It’s not that having old people is a disaster”, said Lahrae Knatterud, an aging expert with the department who heads Transform 2010, the first lap of a longer-range state project aimed at getting prepared. “But we’ve known about the age wave, and we still don’t have a plan in place.” In 11 community meetings around the state over the past few months, Minnesotans have shared worries and ideas to help planners charged with mapping what needs to happen. A draft of the 2010 plan is due later this year.

 

Here’s a sneak preview of planners’ predictions for the future:

Many boomers will work past age 62 or 65. Many will need to because of lax savings habits, stock market losses or lost benefits as a result of corporate upheaval. Some will keep working because they like the stimulation or a feeling of productivity. Some will tackle new pursuits or patch together the old and the new.

 

Many employers will need to remove barriers that make it difficult for people to stay in their jobs.

 

An explosion of choices will appear in housing and health insurance markets and all kinds of services as people age. Always fond of choices, boomers like having the tools to help them decide. “A one-stop-shop model will appear”, Knatterud said. “So, you dont have to get five different things and pull them all together.” One example is a new Web site (www.longtermcarechoices.MinnesotaHelp.info) for helping boomers craft a long-term-care plan for their aging parents.

 

Almost one in three boomers will lack money in retirement to pay for health care or long-term care, according to a study the state report cites. Participants in community meetings brainstormed tactics to make saving easier. One idea enables employers to force employees to contribute part of their paychecks for 401(k) accounts.

More strategies and programs will appear to encourage and enable people to buy long-term-care insurance. So will incentives to get people interested in working at jobs in long-term care.

Nursing homes as we know them will disappear. They will continue to provide rehabilitation to patients after surgeries and falls and increasingly will be used for palliative care and comfort care for the dying. People with chronic conditions will use them less as they find adequate care in other living situations.

Many baby boomers will turn a cold shoulder to senior housing options available now. “Boomers represent a generation that dislikes any hint of segregation or ageism”, Knatterud said. “They’re a group wanting to be in more integrated communities.” New-wave housing models will hit the market. Or boomers will create their own.

Lynnae LeBaron of Roseville was among participants in one of the project’s community meetings. At age 60, she works as manager of a senior program and looks forward to more time with her grandchildren. “What do I personally worry about? If I have enough funds to follow me through my retirement years”, she said.

Her response has a familiar ring for many boomers. Planning for the age wave comes at an unsettling time.

Says Knatterud, “Things we used to take for granted are up in the air. I think boomers see things changing as they think about what they can depend on in retirement” income, health insurance, private pensions. More is being put on the individual.”

Baby boomers bring a demographic of empowerment to the aging landscape.

They’re more demanding than previous generations, but they also want to influence the system. They’re not shy.

Aging issues of boomers

These concerns rose to the surface in community meetings this year as the top 10 issues facing communities in the wake of a coming age boom:

1. Making good use in the next 20 years of a powerful human resource: healthy people between ages 60 and 80.

2. Reversing a trend of inadequate financial preparation for retirement and old age.

3. Finding solutions to long-term-care costs that otherwise will overwhelm individuals and the public safety net.

4. Putting more emphasis on the importance of preventing health problems and disabilities.

5. Addressing families’ reduced ability to provide care for their older relatives.

6. Shaping Minnesota’s 2,600 communities into good places in which to grow old.

7. Filling the gaps that will prepare state’s health and long-term-care systems for a larger and older aging population.

8. Building the long-term-care work force as many in their ranks head into retirement.

9. Increasing the information flow and menu of services to help people get the care they need while staying as independent as possible.

10. Tailoring services to work effectively with ethnic, immigrant and tribal communities.