Some Statistics

From AARP Public Policy Institute and other sources:

• 16 percent of frail adults aged 85 and older have no surviving children to help provide their caregiving.
• By 2040, then the oldest boomers are in their 90's, that number will rise to 21% (how do they know that?).
• More than one fifth of boomers are childless
• Another 17% had only one child.
• Only 37 percent of older adults who aren't in nursing homes or hospice care (and only 15% of all adults) have completed legal proxies specifying who can make health care decisions on their behalf. (Notice how the insertion of the word "only" changes the perceived quality of the statistic.)

Michael