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Hawaii's rapidly aging population is examined from demographic, medical, and consumer perspectives in 1996. Eleanor C. Nordyke, joining by phone, reports that Hawaii residents now average about 80 years of life expectancy — up from 53 in 1930 — and that the state's population is projected to grow from 1.18 million in 1993 to nearly 1.82 million by 2020, driven more by immigration than by fertility. Max G. Botticelli stresses what the numbers obscure: much of that longer life is spent merely existing rather than living, with Medicare spending on patients who die running roughly $14,000 in the final year compared to $2,000 for survivors — money too often used to prolong dying rather than treat disease. Sam Shenkus represents the baby-boomer counterpoint, predicting that boomers will age on their own terms, continuing to work and invest, and notes that $29 billion flowed into stock markets in January 1996 alone, double the 1990 annual total, as millions scramble to fund retirement. Callers raise Alzheimer's disease, deficiencies in nursing home care, Hawaii's policy of not taxing retirement income, and the spiritual dimensions of facing death.
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Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.
