00:00 Julie
Speaking of no quick fix, the last point that you touched on about the affordability of assisted care for people who need it, right? Does there also need to be sort of a policy prescription to deal with that because of the aging of Americans and and people not being able to afford that kind of care. So then, does that have the dual effect of helping elderly Americans and also loosening up the housing market?
00:24 Meredith
Yeah, I think that there are some really creative uh uh uh really creative solutions. So there’s, um there’s been a chronic undersupply of home health care aids. And um that’s not improving with um with a slowdown in immigration because so many of the health care aids are foreign born, um and guest guest workers or on their path to citizenship. And that has been and as more people, you know, as the silver tsunami, the the majority of the uh boomers have passed the threshold of of uh being uh becoming seniors, um that that only amplifies the numbers. So, um I have written extensively about um a a Golden Girls type housing arrangement where you have shared housing in um single family housing and you’d have shared home health care workers. Um you got to think of new new new strategies. But um not only is aging um uh very lonely and uh and loneliness is a major contributor to aging faster. Um that, you know, a shared housing agreement helps that, also shares expenses and also um uh uh helps with the the health care uh shortage. But creativity is um is is critical here and and there’s got to be a lot of optionality and everything needs to be on the table.
02:08 Julie
I love the Golden Girls solution, Meredith. That’s a good one. Thank you so much. It’s great to see you.
02:13 Meredith
Great to see you, Julie. Thanks.