Lt. Governor’s Log for September 2007

Small, Timely Corrections Are Key To Our State’s Healthy Aging

By Brian Dubie

I learned something long ago as a pilot that I have repeated often to student pilots as a flight instructor. “By making small, timely corrections, you will avoid making big, risky corrections.”

Today our state and our nation face a changing reality, of a population made up of more older people and less younger ones than ever before in our history. And it’s a trend that will continue. In Vermont, with our 2nd oldest population and lowest birth rate of any state in the US, we will need to adapt to this change ahead of the rest of the country.

That’s why Governor Jim Douglas established the Commission on Healthy Aging, which I chair. It’s our task to understand the evolving needs of older Vermonters, and propose proactive ways to help improve their health and quality of life, while making the most of the resources available to us.

Part of the challenge is to make the math work. With our population of older retirees growing faster than our population of younger workers, we can see ahead to a time when it will be increasingly challenging for young and working Vermonters to honor our commitment to retired Vermonters.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke testified before a Senate committee earlier this year that in 2006, federal spending for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid together totaled about 40 percent of federal expenditures, or about 8.5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). By the year 2030, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that they’ll account for 15% of GDP.

Meanwhile, between 2005 and 2030, the population of Americans aged 65 and older will nearly double to 71 million, jumping from 12% to 20% of total population.

Those make for formidable math problems. The sooner we act to correct our course, the smaller and safer those corrections will be.

In Vermont, caring for our seniors is a non-negotiable priority.

Today, there are proven strategies to promote wellness and independence for older Vermonters – strategies to prevent chronic diseases, disabilities, and injuries among our seniors – strategies to ensure that seniors remain active and involved in their communities, and continue to enjoy a good quality of life.

Principals like these are good for seniors, good for our state as a whole, and good for the bottom line.

We need to encourage one another to take individual responsibility for our own wellness earlier in life and throughout our lives, and to educate and encourage one another to exercise, to eat well, to manage medications, to stay socially connected, to volunteer, and to serve.

In the coming weeks, I will be listening to Vermont seniors in a series of get-togethers designed to help us learn what seniors are most concerned about today, and what they see as priorities for our state. Health care, housing and homeowners’ concerns, transportation, taxes, financial security and personal safety are just a few of the subjects we hope to hear about from you. We hope to turn what we hear into legislative proposals for the legislature to consider when it reconvenes in January. These events will be open to all, and I hope you will join me when I’m in your area. We will share dates and locations as soon as we know them.

If you are unable to make it to an event, then please write or email me with your thoughts to the addresses below.

As Chair of the Governor’s Commission on Healthy Aging, I look forward to recommending ways to help all older Vermonters – today’s and tomorrow’s -- enjoy a good quality of life, better financial security, healthier living and more affordable health care, with the blessing of independence, and the comfort of community.

As a state if we continue to take action now, our corrections can be minor. Wait, and they will become major.

Brian Dubie is Vermont’s Lieutenant Governor. E-mail his office a martha.hanson@state.vt.us, or visit www.ltgov.state.vt.us or write to him at the State House, 115 State St., Montpelier, VT 05633.