Boomers hit 65: Are Californians ready?

While demand for senior services is mounting, the government's ability to provide those services has been weakened by soaring health care costs and state and local budget cuts. In some cases, public officials are enlisting nonprofits to help them provide services. By 2029, Medicare won't have enough money to pay for the benefits that members consume, according to the 2010 Medicare trustees report. If the health reform law is repealed or pared back, that situation could come even sooner.

Baby boomers may have more than one kind of caregiving problem. Unlike their parents, who have been attended to in their old age by their large broods of sons and daughters, boomers typically had small families – 1.8 children on average vs. their parents' 3.5. That means fewer close family members watching over them as they age. "I'm very concerned," said Kim Kuviora, 50, owner of a court-reporting business in Folsom. She and her husband had no kids.

One snapshot of baby boomer health shows the generation as rugged outdoors men and women who go mountain biking and kayaking. "In a way we're in better shape. In a way, we're in worse shape," said Candace Roeder, executive director of Seniors First, a nonprofit senior services agency serving Placer County. "We've really used up our joints. I'm 57 and already had a knee replacement. We've played hard. We continue to play hard." In fact, though, boomers will face just as many health problems as their parents have, said Will Tift, planner for the Area 4 Agency on Aging. "What I would describe as a highly visible minority, the sky-diving baby boomer who's out there adventure-seeking, those people exist. That's a minority faction of all boomers," Tift said.

WHAT IS MEDICARE? Medicare is the federal health insurance program for people 65 and over, people under 65 who have certain disabilities and people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or end-stage renal disease. Medicare Part A, known as the "hospital insurance" portion of Medicare, helps pay for inpatient hospital stays, inpatient skilled nursing facility stays (after a hospital stay), some home health care and hospice care. Medicare Part B, known as the "medical insurance" portion of Medicare, helps pay for outpatient medical care such as doctor visits, lab tests and durable medical equipment. Medicare Part D is optional prescription drug coverage available for purchase from private companies.

Roughly seven in 10 people who turn 65 will need long-term care at some point in their lives, according to the SCAN Foundation. Chances are that most of them don't know how they'll pay for that care. "Every person is on his or her own in terms of long-term care, and long-term care is incredibly expensive," said Barbara Gillogly, chairwoman of the gerontology department at American River College. On average, home health aides in California cost $21 per hour, adult day health care costs $77 per day, and a one-bedroom unit in an assisted-living facility costs $3,500 per month, said SCAN, which advocates for long-term services that keep seniors independent and at home.

Wasn't it just yesterday when the baby boomers were bouncing around to The Who's "My Generation" and singing along …"Things they do look awful cold / Hope I die before I get old."Of course we didn't mean it, and of course it didn't happen for most of the generation born after World War II.