10 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT AGING IN AMERICA

• By 2010, people over 55 will outnumber people under 18 for the first time in history.
• More than a quarter of all nursing homes cause serious harm or even death to patients due to understaffing, minimally-trained aides who receive substandard wages, and overwhelming patient loads.
• African-Americans, on average, die 6 years younger than Caucasians.
• In San Francisco, where real estate prices rank number one in the nation, some 500 elders are evicted each year.
• The share of employers offering retiree health benefits is steadily declining.
• Medicare pays for 1 out of every 5 dollars spent on healthcare in the United States.
• More than 84,000 inmates in America are over the age of 50 – the fastest growing segment of the prison population.
• There are currently 2.4 million grandparents raising their grandchildren in America.
• Women account for 70% of older Americans living in poverty.
• The fastest growing segment of society today is people over 85.
  
  Source: Aging in America; The Years Ahead / photographs by Ed Kashi; essays and interviews by Julie Winokur;
  powerHouse Books, New York, NY, 2003

A proud and resourceful nation can no longer ask its older people to live in constant fear of a serious illness for which adequate funds are not available. We owe them the right of dignity in sickness as well as in health.
—John F. Kennedy