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The Key to a Long Life: Conscientious Habits
Tweet Share on Facebook April 8, 2011 Comment (4)Long before the age of gene therapy and miracle medical treatments, the secrets of long life were being gathered and revealed in a unique study of 1,500 children born about 1910. By studying these people throughout their lives, successive generations of researchers collected nearly 10 million pieces of observable data and have been able to produce solid insights into human longevity.
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"Most people who live to an old age do so not because they have beaten cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or lung disease; rather, the long-lived have mostly avoided serious ailments altogether," according to Howard S. Friedman and Leslie R. Martin, in their recent book, "The Longevity Project."
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How the GOP Budget Plan Would Transform Medicare
Tweet Share on Facebook April 5, 2011 Comment (12)The House GOP's 2012 proposed budget has launched the loudest shot to date against the current form of Medicare and other retiree health benefits. Stating that the nation no longer can afford the skyrocketing deficits of its major entitlement programs, the budget proposals would dramatically change Medicare.
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The current program would be joined by a new approach to retiree health coverage that would apply to everyone who is now 55 or younger. They would select private healthcare insurance plans, and the government would provide premium support payments to those plans. Current Medicare rules would continue to govern government healthcare for anyone older than 55.
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How to Help Retirees Stay in Their Homes
Tweet Share on Facebook April 4, 2011 Comment (1)Helping people stay in their homes as they age has been a formal, if poorly understood, goal of U.S. aging policy for some time. Experts say it's far cheaper than housing seniors in nursing homes and other institutions. And public surveys find that it's also the overwhelming preference of 9 out of 10 seniors.
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As much as we want to age in our own homes, however, the network of government, volunteer, and family caregiving resources needed to support older Americans is able to meet only a fraction of the elder population's needs. And with soaring numbers of older Americans, coupled with stressed government and philanthropic budgets, the scale of unmet needs is likely to rise sharply.
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AARP Conflicts Alleged in GOP Attack
Tweet Share on Facebook April 1, 2011 Comment (15)AARP, the 37-million-member voice of older Americans, is being hammered by Republican members of the House Ways and Means Committee. In a report, "Behind the Veil: The AARP America Doesn't Know," Reps. Wally Herger of California, Charles Boustany of Louisiana, and Dave Reichert of Washington claim the organization has become a billion-dollar, for-profit entity whose lobbying efforts have placed its insurance interests above those of its public members.
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As such, the report calls upon the IRS to investigate whether AARP should retain its nonprofit status, which exempts nearly all of its operations from federal income taxes.
