Before a Crisis: Why Prime Age Exists

Your phone will ring.

It may be a neighbor. A doctor. A hospital.

Or a brother or sister saying the words that instantly change your family’s future:

“Mom fell.”

“Dad can’t go home alone.”

“We need to make some decisions.”

In that moment, your family must decide what happens next.

Can Mom return home? Who can speak for Dad? What will Medicare cover? Who will provide the care? Who will pay for it?

The crisis does not wait for a family to learn the system.

America relies heavily on family caregivers. In 2025, 63 million Americans, nearly one in four adults, provided care to a family member or friend, according to AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving. More than 40% provided high-intensity care, but only 22% received training.

Family caregivers often do far more than prepare meals or drive someone to a medical appointment. They provide medical care at home, navigate fragmented health and long-term care systems, and make decisions for relatives who can no longer decide for themselves, according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Many families also learn during a crisis that Medicare does not pay for most long-term care. It generally does not cover ongoing help with bathing, dressing, eating and other daily needs, whether that care takes place at home, in assisted living or in a nursing home.

The need for clear information will grow. The number of Americans age 65 and older reached 61.2 million in 2024, up 13% from 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

These are not simply private family problems. They are questions about how America prepares for aging, pays for care and protects dignity and independence.

Yet aging and long-term care rarely receive the sustained, public-interest reporting they deserve.

That is why Prime Age exists.

Prime Age will investigate the policies, people and ideas shaping how America ages. We will explain complicated systems in plain language and give families information they can use before a crisis begins.

If you believe families deserve clear information before they face the hardest decisions of their lives, subscribe to Prime Age.

The best time to prepare is before the crisis.

The conversation starts here.

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Photo caption: Prime Age board members gather at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., on July 18, 2026, during the organization’s first meeting to plan its launch. Photo by Prime Age.