HCAOA Recognizes Older Americans Month, Shares Community Resources

​HCAOA joins the White House, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Administration for Community Living (ACL), and other groups in recognizing the valuable contributions of older Americans this month.  Their hard work, commitment to our country, and devotion to their families have helped shape our nation into what it is today.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy issued the first proclamation for Older Americans Month (OAM), setting aside a time to acknowledge the contributions of past and current older persons have made to the United States. 2023 marks the 60th anniversary of the initial proclamation and the ACL is celebrating with a theme of “Aging Unbound.” The theme explores diverse aging experiences and how communities can combat stereotypes.
 
From the White House and legislators to regulators and agencies, the growing focus on caring for older Americans continues to expand and it could not come at a better time.
 
According to recent numbers from CMS, in 2020, 30.8 million women and 24.8 million men were age 65 or older—comprising 17 percent of the total US population. By 2040, this population is expected to grow to 22 percent of the population.
 
94 percent of this population is covered by Medicare and spends about 14 percent of their total expenditures on health. Help your clients, friends and family better understand their health coverage through some of the resources from CMS and ACL below:

• The Adults Preventive Services flyer can help older adults learn about preventive services available to them at no cost under most health coverage.
• Download the Alzheimer’s Disease, Arthritis, and Osteoporosis data snapshots to learn more about the prevalence of these conditions among Medicare fee-for-service enrollees.
• Explore Coverage to Care (C2C) resources, including the Roadmap to Better Care, to help people better understand their health coverage and connect to the primary care and preventive services they need.
• Review the CMS Framework for Health Equity 2022–2032, which informs all of CMS OMH’s work and aims to further advance health equity, expand coverage, and improve health outcomes for the more than 150 million individuals supported by CMS programs.
• Visit CMS’s Rural Health webpage for more information about the unique challenges in health care affecting older Americans who live in rural areas. 
• Use the Medicare website to learn how people aged 65 and older can sign up for Medicare, as well as find tips for using Medicare and helpful Medicare tools.

Members can also read the White House proclamation here and find Older Americans Month resources from the ACL here.