Gene Martin: [00:00:00] Welcome to New Hampshire Uncharted where we go beyond the charts and graphs to bring you the policy conversations that matter, backed by the data you trust. I’m Gene Martin, your host, and each month we’ll tackle a big policy question facing the Granite State, breaking it all down with experts in the latest research.

New Hampshire Uncharted is a podcast from the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute, produced in partnership with the Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication at Franklin Pierce University and the Granite State News Collaborative. Let’s dive in.

New Hampshire is aging faster than most states in the country. Only three states had bigger increases in their median ages between 2010 and 2020. And now nearly one in five residents is over the age of 65, and that number is only growing. So what does this mean for a healthcare system, our housing market, our economy and workforce? Well, in today’s episode, we’re digging into how the state’s aging population is already reshaping life in the Granite State.

And what needs to happen to ensure that New Hampshire remains a place where all people [00:01:00] can thrive no matter their age. Joining us today, there are three people who are leading the conversation on aging and policy here in the Granite State. Lily Wellington, Executive Director of the State Commission on Aging, Christina Fitzpatrick, the State Director of the AARP, New Hampshire and Jess Williams, Policy Analyst at the Fiscal Policy Institute. Welcome to New Hampshire Uncharted.

Lily Wellington: Thank you.

Christina Fitzpatrick: Thank you, Gene.

Jess Williams: Happy to be here.

Gene Martin: We’re excited to get started and talk about this important issue. Jess, would you start us off and share a little bit about New Hampshire demographic context for this discussion?

What’s the current breakdown for older adults compared to other age groups here in the state?

Jess Williams: Of course. So the US Census Bureau actually just released new data last week. So the filming for this episode in particular really couldn’t have come at a better time. So as an upshot to really help frame this conversation, it’s really important to understand that New Hampshire is one of the oldest states in the country, [00:02:00] in terms of its demographics and is also aging more rapidly than most other states. So as of the most recent data from 2024, nearly 22% of New Hampshire’s population, or more than one in five residents is over the age of 65. An additional 15% are between the ages of 55 and 64, meaning a large portion of our population is either at or approaching the traditional retirement age in the coming decade.

In contrast, we know that children make up just under 18% of the state’s population, with that number having declined rapidly. When we look at data from the start of the decade in 2020, children and older adults made up a similar share of the population. At that time, only three states had more older adults than children. Two of them being our neighbors, Maine and Vermont. [00:03:00] Fast forward only a few years to 2024, that most recent data and that number has nearly quadrupled. Now about 11 states have more older adults than children, and New Hampshire actually reached that point as early as 2021. So looking ahead too as well, the gap between older adults and children in New Hampshire is also expected to continue to widen. Projections that we have from the New Hampshire department of business and economic affairs suggest that looking ahead to, 2050, about 27% of residents will be over the age of 65. While those children under age 20 will make up about 20% of the population.

So all of this being said, it’s clear that New Hampshire’s population is aging quickly and this demographic shift will of course have several implications for New Hampshire. [00:04:00]

Gene Martin: Absolutely. Thank you so much Jess, and you’ve done some great work sort of looking into the demographics. And again, for many of our listeners who also read our work, there’s no surprise that we have more deaths here in New Hampshire than births, and we have sort of in-migration.

So that’s folks moving from other states, here as well as immigration folks that are sort of moving here, from other countries. And so, you know, Lily, when I think about this issue, I feel like, you know, I’m of an age where when I graduated high school, we were sort of the largest class.

We were sort of at the end of this sort of like mini boom, I don’t know what we called it for the, for younger folks under 40, but that sort of early two thousands. And so New Hampshire’s been an aging state, we’ve heard the sort of terms, the gray of New Hampshire, the silver tsunami. This has been coming and it’s, it’s actually here to sort of hear that we’re sort of outpacing the number of young people by old people.

So [00:05:00] Lily, I know you’re relatively new in your role at the New Hampshire Commission on Aging. But obviously these population trends are not new and have anticipated as a state, what are we doing to prepare for our aging population? And the second part of this is why should this trend be really important to policy makers and just regular, everyday folks?

Lily Wellington: That’s a great question, Gene, and it’s something that the state is really focused on. It’s something that the Commission on Aging is also working very hard to look at this from all angles. So we like to think of this as an opportunity. We have a plan right now, the Age Well NH, which is a multi-sector plan for aging.

Many people are not familiar with what that actually means. It’s different from the state plan on aging in that this is for everyone in New Hampshire. What we want to look at is what are the areas in the state that we can focus on? How can we rebuild our infrastructure? We think about our systems of care that were built for a very different time, right? [00:06:00]

So when we started to build things like public health or any of our policies. Even Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, those were designed for a very different time. We had very different lifespans, so we need to look critically at how we can adapt our current infrastructure, our current systems, to make up for our new social change.

So. The Age Well NH plan is one part of that. We’re looking at what does the state need to do to prepare itself so that we can become a longevity hub. This is kind of a newer concept, which is there’s gonna be areas of the world. This is a worldwide demographic shift to an aging population, and how can New Hampshire position itself so that we are an attractive place to age.

But that we can leverage this as an opportunity. We’re also looking at community transportation needs assessment, which is what are the systems that we currently have in the state that get people from point A to point B? [00:07:00] And one of the reasons that this is really important is that New Hampshire is pretty car dependent. So, if you think about the last time that you walked to the grocery store or walked to work, it’s not all that common. And so we need to look at how we’re gonna continue to provide transportation as we age for the full spectrum. And that’s an opportunity again, and we’re also looking at systems of care for healthy aging.

I think that’s really important for us to maximize how we’re aging well, this is not just about care and I think that that’s one of the points I really wanna drive home is that New Hampshire’s actually a very healthy state. We don’t talk about that as much as we should. That the Healthy Aging Data Report that was released earlier this year in May, noted that at any given time, 90% of folks who are 65 and older are living without assistance. They’re living completely independent. They do not [00:08:00] have any care needs. So, I think that’s something that’s really important. We’re talking about 10% when we reduce our conversations to care or worries about a burden, that we really need to be thinking more about the 90%.

Christina Fitzpatrick: Lily, I couldn’t agree more about what you were saying about the aging of the population being a real opportunity here because it’s easy. I feel like a lot of times when people talk about the aging of the population, there’s this undercurrent that it’s a real problem, a problem to be addressed.

And I like to think of it more as you said, as an opportunity. First of all, it’s a great dividend. Like we’ve succeeded with, health, healthcare in this country where lifespans are longer. And the question is, what are we gonna do with that? And also there are shifts that need to be made. I mean, when the population is older than it used to be that people at different life stages have different needs. [00:09:00]

What is good for an aging population is good for everyone. So everybody could use better transportation. So what would it be like if not everybody had to own a car? Everybody does better when there’s a better sense of community and real opportunities for people to interact with each other.

And you can go on down the line housing everything else. If our society is set up to help address the needs of older people, it is also gonna benefit everyone else.

Gene Martin: Christina, thank you so much for that. I appreciate that. And I think that’s an important frame of, that this is an opportunity. And I think about, you know, as an elder, millennial here, you know, I think about transportation. You know, I have a friend who’s in real estate and they built some apartments. This was maybe 10 years ago, and they thought this would be more for sort of older adults, but surprisingly it was [00:10:00] a good mix of younger folks.

So we talk about transportation. I feel like that’s something, it’s a good opportunity to sort of rethink how we have community because what works for older adults also probably would work for younger people too. Right? You know, when you think about buying a car and it’s just so much more expensive than it used to be.

And some folks, you know, maybe wanna have a one car household or, or no car at all. So I think it’s a great point about this is an opportunity to sort of rethink things. Christina, you know, I think it’s fair to say that most older adults want to age in place. And so, you know, of course there are barriers to that.

Obviously, as sort of Lilly mentioned, we have folks that are, are really healthy, but there’s a percentage of people that, you know, as folks get older that that’s not necessarily the case. What are some of the biggest challenges that you’re seeing, hearing, when they face sort of, when it comes to healthcare or housing, to sort of age in place. What are some of the concerns you hear from older adults?

Christina Fitzpatrick: Aging in place is one of these interesting concepts [00:11:00] or situations where everybody wants to age in place as long as they can. Like at some point your health might dictate that you need to be in a nursing home or just receive that higher level of care.

But other than that, everybody would rather stay at home, stay close to friends, stay in the community. So that’s what people want, and it makes financial sense to give people what they want because aging in place costs a lot less than nursing home care. So, we need to facilitate that as much as possible.

Lily referred earlier to this thing called the System of Care for Healthy Aging, and that is focused on the healthcare system, the long-term care system, and what is needed to ensure that people can get the kind of care that they need, where they want it and when they want it. And there are changes that need to be made at the state level [00:12:00] to make that happen, and the state is starting to do those things.

So a couple of years ago the legislature passed a great package of new policies that are sending us in that direction so funding better information sharing. So what used to be called Service Link is now called Aging and Disability Resource Centers, where anybody can call and say, you know, my dad just got out of the hospital and needs, we need to do some home modifications. We need to install some grab bars. We need better lighting. Who can help us with that? And any other kind of information, questions, ’cause sometimes that’s all you need is that you’ve never been in this situation before. So how do I, how do I help set my loved one up so they can age, they can be in their homes safely.

And that’s one of the key things when you talk about housing, is we need housing that is safe. The Census Bureau did a report a few years ago and they [00:13:00] were examining age, the availability of age ready housing, and they defined that as on the first floor having a no step entry essentially, and then having a bedroom and a full bathroom on the first floor.

And because of the older housing stock in New England, only 20% of houses in the state are age ready. So that’s the big thing is having a house that doesn’t have a step to get in and has a bedroom and a full bath on the first floor. It takes a lot to do that. Like, so if you don’t have that, either you have to move or you have to spend a lot of money.

But then there are also things like the grab bars, like the better lighting, like not having rugs on the floor that people may need help making those adjustments so that they can stay in their home safely.

Gene Martin: Well, thank you so much, [00:14:00] Christina. As you know, we talked about housing and certainly you know I come from a blended family between my wife and I, we, as we like to say, the girls, have six different grandparents. So we’re sort of very blessed in that way. But the point I was chuckling, as you were talking about the first floor, because as folks have gotten older, that’s sort of a thing that’s really challenging.

Folks struggle to find, like sell their house to find an apartment or find a home that had everything on the first floor. Things that you sort of, I think take for granted. I’m thinking about them in terms of the healthcare. You know, one of the things I hear from friends and sort of folks is sort of this like direct care service and sort of, there’s not enough maybe like home health aids and I know there’s been some funding increases over the last few years to try to sort of step up with that.

But what are you hearing about the sort of healthcare side of this and folks being able to, you know, have folks come in and sort of assist them, you know, maybe a few times of a week, you know, is that sort of a challenge that folks are having? [00:15:00]

Christina Fitzpatrick: Yes, there is a shortage of healthcare workers who can do that work.

It’s for home care, but also for institutional care. There are more beds and nursing homes in this state that, and there’s a need for those beds, but not enough workers to safely accommodate more patients. So there’s a lack of workforce. There’s also dramatically high costs. So even though home-based care costs less, a lot, less than institutional care, it’s still expensive.

So it’s a real conundrum where you have a shortage of in the workforce. If you’re gonna try to address that shortage, you need to make those jobs more attractive. Right now, they pay very little. Not all of them come with benefits, and it’s a tough, tough job to go into people’s homes [00:16:00] and help them with their most intimate needs and interact with them when they’re very, they may be very sick, they may be lonely.

It’s a hard job. But even though we’re not paying these folks much money, even though the there we’re not paying them much, it’s still hard for families to absorb those costs. So if we’re gonna address the workforce shortage, in large part, that’s about money. That’s about paying people more and hiring more people.

But if you do that, it just makes long-term care that much more expensive. And so bridging that divide is, is a real struggle.

Gene Martin: I appreciate that. And Jess, you know, before I, I go back to Lily and Christina talking about sort of what policies could help make a difference. Jess, I’m wondering if you could share with us how many residents aren’t in the workforce here in New Hampshire because they’re caring for an older adult.  I know the Census Bureau does some sort of survey data [00:17:00] on how many folks are not in the workforce ’cause they’re caring for older adults.

Jess Williams: So based on the most recent US census data from 2024 alone, an average of more than 4,000 Granite staters were out of the workforce, at any given point because they were caring for an older adult family member.

This is of course particularly important when we think about, that sandwich generation or working age adults, who are caring for both aging parents or grandparents, and children. I know Christina was talking a lot about the paid caregiving and the shortages in that area, but of course there’s a lot of unpaid caregiving that goes into caring for older adults in the state.

We know using that same data from 2024, for example, an average of additional 17,000, were out of the workforce because they were caring for children. Of course these numbers [00:18:00] also only reflect those fully out of the labor force. Many more likely reduced hours or cut back on work to manage some of those increased unpaid caregiving responsibilities.

So as you know, the cost of both childcare and older adult care continues to rise. There’ll be a lot less availability in that level of care. A lot more families will likely be taking on those responsibilities themselves, which we know can have some more long-term impacts on household income and just the overall general, economic productivity in the state.

Gene Martin: Thanks, Jess, for that important sort of context. So, 4,000 folks sort of at any given time out of the workforce completely. But as you point out, folks, you know, may have reduced hours. I just sort of anecdotally know that, you know, I have a few friends who sort of, you know, caring for their parents or other folks so they have reduced hours.

And also,  you know, what the cost is [00:19:00] for flexible policies. You know, certainly not everyone has a workplace and a culture where you can take time off or have the ability to take time off to go and bring a parent to an appointment or things like that. So that’s an important piece. So thinking about the family caregivers and the direct workforce, we’ll sort of kick it off to Lily first and then to Christina.

What public policies could make a difference in terms of supporting better supporting family caregivers and the direct care workforce?

Lily Wellington: Well, I think that kind of piggybacking off of the previous point, is that we really do need to look at the number of potential caregivers to the number of individuals who will need care.

So if you think about this statistically in 2010, we had seven potential caregivers for every 80 plus year old individual. And that was we sort of maxed out in 2010. And since then, that ratio has been on a decline. [00:20:00] So by 2030, that ratio will reach four potential caregivers per 80-year-old individual.

And so this, this caregiver ratio is gonna continue to decline as our aging population reaches the 80 plus age category, which is where we do start to think about folks who are gonna need care. And so on average, somebody’s gonna need three years of care. We know that care in in your home is significantly less expensive.

Something like $45,000 versus institutional care and a facility is upwards of $110,000 a year. Most people can’t afford that, simply put, and so we in terms of public policy as a state, it would be really wise if we could invest in some public policy that would support family caregivers. They are kind of the first line of defense, and if that number is reducing over time, they’re even that much more important.

So if that looks like flexible work schedules. If that looks like a greater public understanding [00:21:00] of the burden that we face, when we’re caregiving either for children or for, our parents or our family, that’s really important. It can look like employee resource groups. It can look like, there are some employers that will do concierge type health services and kind of pointing back to our earlier conversation, I think this is really an opportunity for business to step in and say there’s a need, there’s a demand, and you know, it’s 2025. We’ve reached an age where people are expecting that once we encounter a problem, that there’s an app for that, that we can solve for that. And people are looking for really expedient solutions. And I think that between technology, between good old fashioned American ingenuity, this is something that we can look at it and, and we can address this from kind of all sectors.

Gene Martin: Thank you so much, Lily. Christina.

Christina Fitzpatrick: I’d like to build off of Lily’s point there about the role of employers. [00:22:00] It is true that employers can adopt policies that will support family caregivers and others. So if you provide people with flexibility in the schedule of their day so that they can take time off in the middle of the day to take somebody to a doctor’s appointment, for example, or you let people shift their hours so that perhaps they’re taking the morning shift to help care for their mom and their husband or their spouse, significant other, can take the afternoon shift or something, then it makes it possible for families to cobble together care, and it’s not only good for people, it’s good for businesses. There are studies that have shown that businesses that provide policies like flexible scheduling, like being able to use your sick leave, not only for your own sickness, but to help care for somebody else who needs care. [00:23:00]

Their employees are more engaged and more committed and more productive, and all of that is good for the business bottom line. In terms of public policy that could help family caregivers and direct care workforce for family caregivers, the more we can do to make it possible for people to age in place, the better it will be for family caregivers.

And that means a lot of different things. We know that family caregivers, there’s a lot of challenges facing them. One is that financial security, so they have extra costs because of caring for a loved one, and they might need to cut back on the number of hours they’re working or look for a job that’s less demanding and probably pays less. They need time. If they have a full-time job already and all of a sudden you have a loved one who’s come home from the hospital [00:24:00] and needs a lot of one-on-one time. That’s hours on top of what is already a busy life. And then they need resources, they need information, they need support because it really can take a real mental and emotional toll if you are doing a lot of intensive caregiving and seeing someone you love really struggle. In terms of the direct care workforce, there are things that we can do, as I said earlier, to make these jobs more attractive.

And then there are also things that we can do to try to create more of a pathway for people to move up so that there is the possibility for them to gain more responsibility, do different, do different tasks and have that possibility of growth rather than this being a job that is the same for your whole career, your whole time in the [00:25:00] labor force.

Gene Martin: Thank you so much. And I think to the earlier point of, you know, this is a tough job. I think about working, you know, in my, grandmother who is, you know, in her mid eighties when she passed away, when she sort of had that home care, like that’s a challenging job. And part of it is a little bit of being a care worker, being a social worker, just sort of being like a friend, right?

And then dealing with folks, when they have good  and sometimes bad days, and sometimes there are more of those. And so I think that’s sort of, I don’t wanna use the word professionalize, but sort of give folks the who do that work, the sort of honor and dignity that they should have for doing those jobs and sort of thinking about them and compensating them.

Well, of course an important, piece there. You know, Lily, we can start with you. Are there programs or communities in New Hampshire or in a different state, that are really responding to this opportunity Well, as we sort of have this demographic shift, [00:26:00] because I’m wondering what lessons we can learn from other communities, whether in New Hampshire or other states that are sort of grappling, with this, policy, challenge, or opportunity.

Lily Wellington: Yeah, that’s something that we’ve been looking a lot into. Where can we look for successes so that we can advertise them essentially and replicate them, and so one of the things I wanted to mention was community nursing. So Sandwich New Hampshire, has a community nursing program and part of what’s, so, I think ingenious about this is that it both hearkens back to a different time, right, where the doctor or the medical professional would come to you. Which feels a little bit like going back a hundred years, but part of what’s so beautiful about that is that it’s an, actually, it’s a very inexpensive program to implement. So for $30,000 a year, you can have a part-time nurse. It’s embedded in your community that goes and does home visits.

And part of that is that they’re sort of cutting off any medical issues before they become a crisis. Before you end up in the ER  and wait [00:27:00] hours and hours and hours, maybe you didn’t need to be in the ER because you could get care in your home that staved off an infection, say, or maybe you’re transitioning back to your home after being in the hospital and you need someone to follow up and, and give you care, but also assess whether or not you need access to other resources. So part of it’s equal parts prevention as it is intervention and also just making sure people aren’t socially isolated. One in four people who are over the age of 65 in New Hampshire are living alone. So this is a kind of a new social change for us to adapt to, and we’re gonna have to look at it really creatively.

So another program that kind of looks at that same lens of treatment is the mobile integrated health, which is, again, these are part-time positions typically. And instead of having 911 calls or, or high police involvement, fire police, how can we get, paramedics rolling to do kind of routine, medicine, [00:28:00] that can be done in your home?

Get rid of the barriers around transportation or scheduling. We know there are not enough medical providers in the state, so we just have to think, I think, creatively about how we can work around some of our existing challenges.

Gene Martin: Lily, thanks so much for sharing that. I hadn’t heard of the sort of the community nursing in Sandwich, but that’s a great example of like an innovative, so that’s a great example of an innovative solution that folks can replicate in their communities.

Christina, I’m wondering from your lens, what are you seeing in sort of your counterparts, across the country or other things that you all are seeing here in the state?

Christina Fitzpatrick: AARP sponsors something called the Network of Age-Friendly Communities, and there are 19 of them here in New Hampshire. These are communities that have committed to making themselves a better place for everyone to age, and there are multiple factors to that.  It’s about [00:29:00] housing, transportation, a digital connection now, like having access to the internet is important. Open spaces, civic engagement, things like that. So we’re seeing communities across the state and across the country that are making a commitment to making changes.

And in New Hampshire, the Mount Washington Valley is just, is a hub. Of that kind of commitment and activity. And it’s thanks in large part to Marianne Jackson, who was the Executive Director of the Gibson Center in North Conway for a long time. And they have just done just wonderful, wonderful things of trying to improve their communities one step at a time.

And these aren’t massive infrastructure projects. These are programs such as they’re, they’re working right now on [00:30:00] creating a full scale kitchen in their library to change the kind of programming that they can have in the community and try to bring people in. So if you can offer them lunch, then maybe more people will come and just be and connect with others.

They also have a program where they’re demonstrating smart home technology that can help people understand what resources are out there that they can take advantage of to make staying in the home safer. So it could be home monitoring of some kind so that you can monitor a chronic health condition and have that information go straight to your doctor. So rather than having to go physically into the doctor’s office, it could be things that help monitor your prescription drugs. Like if people are taking a lot of prescription drugs, it can be hard to keep track of what they’re doing.

So there are little kind of machines that can, you can set up to help you with that [00:31:00] And so these are all projects that can be done, that communities can take on for not that much money that help to help their people and their community age in place. And this is something that AARP supports not only by providing resources to communities that want to focus on this, but we also have a grant program called the Community Challenge Grant Program, where we have invested $70,000 just this year in projects that strive to make communities a better place to live and age.

Gene Martin: Thank you so much for that description. Really great examples. And although we’re obviously talking about a state context, in a local context, I just sort of would be remiss, not to mention sort of, you know, there probably is a place for federal policy here.

I know a few years ago I read this book, called Age of Dignity, [00:32:00] Preparing for an Elder Boom in America or something to that effect there. And that was published, I think in 2015. So we’re 10 years out. But really, one thing I loved about that book is it highlighted towards the end of it what Germany’s doing and what Japan is doing in some of these other countries that have started to do this work in the nineties, recognizing that it’s a piece.

So I do think it’s important that local communities, and I think the grant programs are really helpful in sort of this collaboration, but also being mindful that this is not just in New Hampshire challenge that’s being faced and opportunity that we have to meet, but also knowing there’s a federal opportunity for that.

You know, as we wrap up for the sort of last question, I’m wondering, and we could start with Jess and then go to Christina and then Lily, but I wanna leave listeners with what’s giving you hope about this policy opportunity.

Jess Williams: Yeah. That’s such a great question and I really just wanna take a moment to [00:33:00] sort of echo everything that’s been said throughout this conversation.

Lily and Christina both brought up a number of strategies and services that can better serve our state’s older adults you know, whether it’s increasing transportation accessibility through the community transportation needs assessment, which I know Lily brought up in the beginning of our conversation, to increasing opportunities for aging in place in the Community Challenge grant program that Christina just brought up.

It seems that there’s a lot being done, although more can be done, it seems that there’s a lot being done in the current moment. What also gives me hope I think is this issue is finally starting to get more attention and recognition. I think for a long time aging was seen, it was more of a future concern and something that we’re gonna need to think about [00:34:00] at a later point, but I think now a lot more of society as a whole is recognizing the sort of impact of an aging population. We’re seeing a lot more momentum from service providers and policy makers, to sort of address these issues head on to better prepare for our state’s future.

Gene Martin: Thanks so much, Jess. Christina.

Christina Fitzpatrick: One of the things that gives me hope, as somebody who’s relatively new to New Hampshire, one thing that has really impressed me is how much individual responsibility people take for their communities. There’s so much volunteer work here in New Hampshire, whether you’re talking about the government level.

So our [00:35:00] state legislature is basically volunteers except for mileage and a hundred dollars a year. But all these in towns across the state, you have multiple committees where people are spending a lot of time just volunteering to help make their towns function. So that level of personal commitment is what’s going to see us through and what is gonna be necessary to make the kind of society that we want. And as our society gets older, you have more and more people who have stopped working and are looking for their next thing that’s gonna give them a sense of purpose. And those are people who have ideas and are making things happen in their communities. So I love looking at what people can do because when you’re looking at the system, it can feel daunting. But each of us can take on some of this challenge of making our communities better.

Gene Martin: Thank you Christina. Lily, same question.

Lily Wellington: Yeah, so we saw a number of housing bills in this last legislative session, which I think really echoes what a number of citizens in the state [00:36:00] are saying is that we have housing supply issues, we need more housing.

We need housing that is not just four bedroom homes or you know, doesn’t cost $750,000 as a starter home as a new build. So we need, as Christina mentioned earlier, age ready housing, and we saw a number of bills this last session that were, I think, brought forward to try and address that across the state. How are we gonna improve on our current housing market and how can we pull certain policy levers that are gonna get us to where we need to be. We also saw some bills last session that had to do with care and improving not only someone’s experience in care, whether it’s, continuing care retirement communities, ensuring that investments that people are making in these communities are gonna be protected.

So that if you are continuing care community, for instance, is in financial trouble, that the money that you have put up front to live there [00:37:00] and you know, in your, in your mind’s eye for the rest of your life. Life is going to be protected, and we also saw that with some nursing facilities and other retirement communities.

So I think that those are really promising signs that we’re understanding that we want everyone to have a positive experience as they age in New Hampshire, and that there are things that we can do from a local, whether it’s town policy or statewide, that can make that possible.

Gene Martin: Well, Lily, Christina, Jess, thank you for giving me hope about this policy topic and thanks for helping us unpack what it means for the graying of New Hampshire, not just for older adults, but for all of us.

And it’s clear that preparing for an aging population isn’t an optional thing and that we have great opportunity to help leverage this and have a great future for all New Hampshire residents. So thanks so much for being part of the conversation.

Lily Wellington: Thank you.

Christina Fitzpatrick: Thank you, Gene. It’s great to talk to you.

Jess Williams: Thank you.

Gene Martin: That’s it for this episode of New Hampshire Uncharted. [00:38:00] If you found today’s conversation helpful, be sure to subscribe and join us again next time for another thoughtful policy conversation. This podcast is produced by the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute in partnership with the Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication at Franklin Pierce University and the Granite State News Collaborative. A big thank you to our partners, without whom this would not be possible. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time on New Hampshire Uncharted.