Californians Are Aging. Here's How the State Can Help.

BY GIL GARCETTI AND JOSé ATILIO HERNáNDEZ?

Californians are getting older. By 2040, 25 percent of the state’s population will be aged 65 and older, up from 16.6 percent today.

What will this mean for our state? It will affect nearly all areas of government, including housing, healthcare, and our economy. And often, these issues will be disproportionately felt by older people of color: By 2040, nearly one third of Californians aged 65 or older will be Latino, up from just over 20 percent today.

To touch on just one issue, consider healthcare. Older adults have different health care needs. Challenges with mobility are the most common form of disability among the elderly. Rates of difficulties related to vision, hearing, cognition, and independent living are much higher than for younger people. Or take the economic impact. As the share of elderly people grows, the proportion of younger folks will decline. The share of Californians aged 17 and younger is expected to decrease by five percentage points by 2040. A similar decline in the working-age population means fewer people paying into rising healthcare costs, pension benefits and other public programs.

The good news is that the state has developed the California Master Plan for Aging, a strategic and comprehensive response to the challenges presented by an aging society. The Plan is a heavy lift, to say the least, and requires lots of people working together. The Newsom Administration must lead the effort. The Legislature has a key role to play. Community support is vital.

Last year, the Little Hoover Commission, an independent state oversight agency on which we both serve, launched a review of the state’s progress in implementing this massive initiative. The study culminated in a comprehensive report, Early Implementation of California’s Master Plan for Aging, which highlights several opportunities to strengthen the state’s implementation of the plan.

California has made significant progress since the plan’s release in 2021, with hundreds of Master Plan initiatives already underway.

But more must be done. Perhaps most important, some components of the plan need to be written into law. The plan as it exists now might not survive a change in administration. Similar master plan efforts in Colorado, Texas, and Massachusetts demonstrated that changes in administration can cause delays in implementation. It is imperative that California stays on track to support its aging population, so we think the law should specify the key roles and responsibilities of the plan.

Beyond that, the state should:

• Move with urgency. When choosing a new initiative, priority should be given to action-based initiatives that will directly benefit older Californians - such as improving the quality of services or increasing the number of people served.
• Articulate a clear path forward. There is currently no established roadmap to implement the Master Plan’s goals or track the state’s progress. The state should create a detailed roadmap with defined short-and long-term goals, timeframes for completion, and metrics.
• Utilize data. There is an abundance of valuable datasets that exist across the Administration that are currently not being utilized. These datasets should be merged so that academics, researchers, and policymakers can make better-informed policy decisions.
• Expand legislative oversight and stakeholder engagement. Policymakers and stakeholders should have an established “seat at the table” through the duration of the Master Plan’s efforts.

California’s rich diversity provides examples of how to value elders. Many of our state’s residents come from countries or communities with a long history of caring for older people, even when resources are scarce. Think, for example, of how especially Latino and Asian families often live in multi-generational settings, the old and the young learning from – and caring for – one another. Many cultures around the world, and right here in our state, provide that kind of template.

Governor Newsom deserves credit for his Master Plan, but it’s a beginning, not an end. Only with more work can we ensure that our state cares for one of its most important resources – the millions of aging Californians who have already done so much, and who have so much more to contribute.

Gil Garcetti and José Atilio Hernández are members of the Little Hoover Commission, and served on the subcommittee that led the study on Early Implementation of California’s Master Plan for Aging.