CBO regularly analyzes the distribution of income in the United States and how it has changed over time. This slide deck presents the distributions of household income, means-tested transfers, and federal taxes between 1979 and 2020.
Source: https://www.cbo.gov/publication/59510?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Several of my family members have died with dementia over the past few decades. There has always been a question in my mind whether they died from dementia, or with dementia. For example, does dementia deteriorate brain function to the point everything else stops working? Like losing the ability to talk, does your brain lose the ability to breath? Well, it is complicated.
What are older Americans’ top health concerns? They are not necessarily what you would expect. The biggest concern of Americans aged 50 and above is the cost of long-term care (56.3%). That is followed closely by the cost of medical care (56.2%), the cost of drugs (54.3%), the cost of health insurance or Medicare (52.1%) and the cost of dental care (44.6%). The only surprise is that the proportions of voters concerned about costs were not higher.
There are times when you need medical care in a hurry. The hospital emergency room (ER) is available for this purpose and there are modes of transportation to get patients to the ER quickly when they cannot drive themselves or cannot make it by private car. Kaiser Health News reports medical response drones are now being tested in some locations.