{"id":26251,"date":"2026-07-10T08:49:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T12:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=26251"},"modified":"2026-07-10T08:49:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T12:49:30","slug":"solo-agers-are-a-growing-group-changes-that-would-help-them-could-help-everyone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=26251","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Solo agers&#8217; are a growing group. Changes that would help them could help everyone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>(By Ashley Milne-Tyte for NPR published July 9, 2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ailene Gerhardt hears a lot of stories. It&#8217;s all part of her job. She&#8217;s a patient advocate, helping people navigate their care and the complexities of the healthcare system. During the last several years she&#8217;s heard from more and more people getting older without adult children, a spouse, or both. But the healthcare system remains stuck in the past, she says, assuming older people have family to support them, when that&#8217;s often not the case.  Continue reading <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2026\/07\/09\/nx-s1-5886348\/solo-agers-demographics-caregiving-family-aging\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2026\/07\/09\/nx-s1-5886348\/solo-agers-demographics-caregiving-family-aging\">here&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"54\" class=\"wp-image-3902\" style=\"width: 150px;\" src=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/NPR-logo.png\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/NPR-logo.png 152w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/NPR-logo-150x55.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><strong>Notice:<\/strong>\u00a0The link provided above connects readers to the full content of the posted article. The URL (internet address) for this link is valid on the posted date; medicarereport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the link\u2019s validity. Also, the opinions expressed in these postings are the viewpoints of the original source and are not explicitly endorsed by AMAC, Inc.; the AMAC Foundation, Inc.; or medicarereport.org.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(By Ashley Milne-Tyte for NPR published July 9, 2026) Ailene Gerhardt hears a lot of stories. It&#8217;s all part of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,59],"tags":[1712,94,1593],"class_list":["post-26251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aging","category-caregiver","tag-community-aging-in-place-advancing-better-living-for-elders","tag-older-adults","tag-solo-agers-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26252,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26251\/revisions\/26252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}