The real Reagan story? Aging society
[13 June 2004 - SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER] Last week's all-news TV channels (the cable stations that formerly carried news) missed the Reagan story I'm most interested in: I had quite enough of Ronald Reagan, the extraordinary; what about Ronald Reagan, the ordinary? Reagan the ordinary is the story about a 93-year-old man living with Alzheimer's disease for more than a decade. Reagan the ordinary is the story about families that must cope with intense medical demands. Reagan the ordinary is the extraordinary demographic trend that's changing America. Like so many older people these days, Reagan kept working long after the so-called "retirement" age; he worked a dozen years past age 65. He then retired to California where more than 400,000 people are older than 85. We are in an era when people live longer -- and that has many ramifications for the way we live, fund government and design our medical system. ...