Published in RINewsToday on December 29, 2025
Throughout 2025, this “Age Beat” columnist published a weekly commentary covering an extensive list of aging, healthcare, and medical issues. During this year, this columnist followed Congressional debates inside the Beltway involving Medicare, Medicaid, reauthorization of the Older Americans Act, and Social Security, reporting on how these federal policy proposals would affect older Rhode Islanders. During the latest legislative session of the Rhode Island General Assembly, policy debates on Smith Hill were also covered in my weekly commentaries, examining how the proposed bills or enacted laws would impact state programs and services serving Rhode Island’s growing older population.
After reviewing the latest U.S. Census Data, it becomes very clear that the state’s aging population continues to grow. For more than twenty-five years, I have tracked and continue to follow the graying of Rhode Island’s population. Through more than 50 articles published in 2025 in Blackstone Valley Call & times and its sister publications, RINewstoday, Senior Digest and other statewide outlets, these stories have decoded complicated public policy debates, and demographic trends to shed light as to how they affect the daily lives of older adults, their caregivers, and nonprofit organizations that serve them.
Some might interpret my weekly reporting as a way that specifically looks at older adults as one group of people. However, others might see them on how aging impacts our own family members and our neighbors, and how we all deal with real-life challenges as we get older.
Themes from Past Year’s Coverage
Over the past year, several themes have become clear: the economics of growing older and financially surviving retirement; staying safe from increasing sophisticated scams, public health issues surrounding loneliness and food insecurity; limited public transportation, finding a primary care physician, and managing multiple chronic illnesses. Many of these commentaries also looked closely at state and federal policies that led to cuts in Medicare and Medicaid; the pressure points placed on Rhode Island’s safety net; and the ongoing policy questions the Rhode Island General Assembly is asking about how to help older adults stay independent at home—not just to live longer, but live better.
You learn very quickly that national policy debates don’t go the same way here,, if you’ve lived in the Ocean State for a while. A change in federal requirements of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or changing eligibility requirements and cuts to Medicaid funding are not distant Washington stories reported by the Washington Post or New York Times especially if they affect food, meal deliveries and health care provided in Providence, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, or Westerly. A change in Medicare drug pricing is not an abstract concept if it determines whether your older neighbor can fill a lifesaving prescription—or whether your spouse’s non-drug compliance stretches pills just to make them last.
Many of these articles were tied to timely triggers—AARP reports detailing findings of national surveys and polls, a Senate Aging Committee or Congressional hearing putting a spotlight on an aging issue, a proposed legislative proposal being considered by Congress or the Rhode Island General Assembly. But the reporting doesn’t just give a concise summary of a policy issue. The point of these commentaries is to shed light on the issues by asking: “So what does this mean for older Rhode Islanders?” Where are the funding gaps?” “Who is being left out? “What can be done now while larger reforms slowly grind their way forward, only to be enacted years later?”
Many of the commentaries published this year focused on out-of- pocket costs that increase with one’s aging —especially skyrocketing medical expenses. Even when Medicare covers a significant portion of one’s care, many older adults still face overwhelming costs, from premiums and co-pays to dental and vision needs, to uncovered services and especially costly prescription drugs and nursing home care. The reporting also examined pending questions about Medicare’s financial future, including whether the program will be able to pay beneficiaries full benefits beyond 2033, or face potential benefit cuts. Even the Washington, DC-based National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare’s call for expanding the retirement program, along with raising the cap to enable Social Security to pay its bills made it into these commentaries.
Another common theme in this year’s published commentaries is the recognition that aging affects not only our bodies and wallets, but also our emotions and relationships as well. The past year’s reporting on the role of loneliness and isolation serves as a reminder of how harmful they can be, especially when they lead to worse health outcomes. In these writings, the goal is not to romanticize “community” but to show how social connection and networks in a “community” can be a good way to improve one’s health.
The commentaries on loneliness do not regard the negative emotional response as a personal deficiency but rather as a significant policy concern influenced by the persistent scarcity of affordable housing, inadequate public transportation, mobility limitations, the loss of spouses and friends, and communities designed around the use of cars rather than their pedestrian walkability or accessibility. How we view this matters because it is the framing that shifts the discussion away from “Why don’t older adults get out more?” to “What community barriers make connections harder to make—and what public supports are needed to make community connections possible?”
Taking a New Look at Being Age-Friendly
The commentary on “age-friendly” thinking shows how Rhode Island’s 39 cities and towns can change their programs, services, and public spaces to keep older adults engaged in their community instead of primarily isolated. The announcement that the City of Pawtucket had joined Newport, Cranston, Providence, Westerly, and Bristol to become one of Rhode Island’s Age-Friendly Network Communities is an example. We hope to report on more communities doing the same.
Over the past year, coverage of food insecurity, and a profile on the Meals on Wheels of Rhode Island, have helped to answer bigger policy questions: What happens when demand goes up but and payments don’t? How do people get on waiting lists? “What does “service disruption” mean for someone living at home? And how much does it cost—both in money and in people, when these programs have to be cut back?
One of the most important things we’ve reported on this year is consumer protection, especially when it comes to scams that target older people, because they are often the ones that more easily fall for scams because they have savings and are concerned about them, aren’t as familiar with digital manipulation, or have cognitive impairment. There are many reasons why this topic is important right now, especially with new technology being used to spread scams. And the Rhode Island General Assembly has been quick to act. One commentary informed readers that Rhode Island has passed a new law to crack down on Crypto ATM fraud, making it the 12th state to do so.
The best reporting on scams doesn’t just explain the tricks and why people fall for them – it also keeps the reader updated as to how scams keep changing. Plus, it gives you practical tips as to how to avoid them, like pausing before you respond, double-checking what you’re told, and turning to someone you trust if something feels off, verifying, and seeking trusted help before acting. I wrote about these tips in great detail.
These consumer protection commentaries didn’t blame the victims, rather by framing scams as a systemic program caused by new technology and weak verification standards. And it makes this point clear. Scams are not just seen as financial crimes; they can also cause shame, isolation, and stress that can harm your health.
Caregiving is also another common topic in this year’s published commentaries. Aging advocates will tell you that caregivers are the hidden backbone of providing care to those in need. They will tell you that family members, friends, and neighbors help out in ways that would otherwise need paid services or institutional care. An AARP report says that about 121,000 in Rhode Islanders provided unpaid care to others in 2021 – estimated to be valued monetarily at over $2.1 billion.
These commentaries on caregiving don’t talk about it in terms of sentiment, but in terms of policy, taking a look at time costs, impact on jobs, burnout, and the lack of enough respite support. The reporting also helps to shed light on common caregiver stress, and that needing help is not a personal failure but a normal result of demographics and underfunded state programs and services.
When National Policy Hits Close to Home
In Rhode Island, where community-based services are important to “aging in place,” the weekly coverage has helped readers to understand the whole long-term care continuum—from home care to day care to senior centers to assisted living to nursing home care, if needed.
At best, access to health care is uneven; transportation is a barrier to many; affordable, accessible housing is limited; and the Medicaid-funded workforce that helps people stay at home is overworked and underpaid. Older adults are dealing with rising costs for food, utilities, and rent or home upkeep, as well as the effects of inflation.
Although many of this year’s commentaries put the spotlight on policy issues that need to be fixed, they also provide state policy makers ideas to solve these issues. These are advocacy groups age-friendly planning; stronger protections for consumers; smarter use of technology; and increased state funding that treats community-based supports as cost-effective interventions rather than optional add-ons.
Herb Weiss 