Aged

As the Senate begins debate on who should benefit from a more-than-$150-billion economic stimulus package, Democrats have put two groups at the top of their list: senior citizens living on Social Security and Americans struggling to pay their energy bills. Missing from the list are workers who lost their jobs in the downturn. What accounts for this tally of winners and losers in the scramble for a piece of the stimulus pie?

Larry Gibson first spotted Dennis Golay outside West Hollywood's French Market Place. By the time he was halfway across Santa Monica Boulevard, he'd fallen in love. It was Nov. 14, 1981 -- Golay's 34th birthday. Seven years later, both men tested positive for the AIDS virus, an almost certain death sentence in the days before antiretroviral drugs. Having dreamed of growing old together, they were devastated. "We had something so special," said Gibson, 63, looking back at that dark time.

Many large employers are struggling with the obligation to cover the rising medical costs of retirees, but last year officials in Michigan found a way to save at least $40 million on care for retired teachers and other public-school workers: Send the bills to Washington.

Taking what they described as a significant step to protect senior citizens, state regulators have persuaded the biggest seller of annuities in California to promise to stop targeting the elderly with pitches allegedly designed to sell them pricey policies that could never pay off. The agreement between Allianz Life Insurance Co.

Robert Mannheim was stunned when he found out that strangers wanted to lend his mother in West Los Angeles money to buy her a $2-million life insurance policy and pay her premiums. The deal got better after two years: She would sign over her death benefits to investors and collect $200,000. The idea of leveraging the value of her newly acquired insurance into a big cash payoff tickled Selma Mannheim, a child of the Great Depression, who knows the importance of having money in the bank.

One piece of the puzzle is missing from the aging in place trend -- healthcare. The nation's healthcare system is simply not designed to help seniors remain living independently, says Laura Gitlin, director of the Center for Applied Research on Aging and Health at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. "We know what helps people," she says. "What helps them age in place is not covered by insurers at this point."

The "aging in place" movement is fueled by changes throughout society. Services linked to retirement communities -- official or otherwise -- are not the only options for older Americans who want to remain in their homes. Networks of services: Across the nation, business people are forming networks, called Aging in Place Councils, in various cities to link seniors to services.

Many government and private organizations offer information and assistance for seniors who want to remain in their own homes. Supportive services programs for naturally occurring retirement communities (NORC): * United Jewish Communities offers a description of the role of supportive services programs and a list of 40 specific communities that are part of its nationwide Aging in Place Initiative: www.norcs.

A scarcity of paid caregivers means that, in the future, older people may have to band together to help each other. Older Americans are already pitching in to care for their more frail or even older counterparts as either paid or volunteer workers. That's because finding younger people to work as caregivers is becoming more difficult.