A lot has been made of the demise of newspapers, but they’re so essential to a community’s growth and evolution by highlighting ideas and trends community-wide, which can become levers for new ideas and, ultimately, action and innovation when people coalesce around them.  Take, for example, the subject of aging and government costs.  In Minnesota’s largest newspaper – the Minneapolis Star Tribune – the last three days, you could see this issue twisting and turning toward a new place:

There was an op-ed article by David Olson, head of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, a major part of it declared Minnesota isn’t prepared for an aging population:

. . . Changing demographics are at the crux of Minnesota’s ongoing budget shortfalls. The warnings have sounded since the mid-1990s, but too many policymakers are deaf to the alarms.  An aging population is demanding more public services, especially in health care. That portion of spending alone, if left untouched, is poised to increase 37 percent in the next two years . . .

There was today’s Star Tribune article by Warren Wolfe, which outlined the hit long-term care would take in Governor Dayton’s budget, with the Republican budget to follow . . .

. . . . When Governor Dayton chose to protect K-12 education and state aid to local governments — two of the "big three” slices in Minnesota’s budget pie — it set him up to have to turn to the third slice: health care and human services . . .

 . . . Overall, Dayton’s budget would save $775 million in human services programs, though the actual cut in payments is about $383 million because Dayton proposes certain revenue-raising strategies through increased surcharges on nursing homes, hospitals and health plans.

Of the net spending cuts, $87 million would come from Medicaid payments for long-term care — $50 million, or 6.4 percent, from nursing homes, and $37 million or 11 percent, from the Elderly Waiver program, which aims to keep people out of nursing homes . . .

And then on the Star Tribune editorial page today new Minnesota Health and Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson discussed managed care and getting the best value:

 . .  . to get better value for our state dollars, we must not merely review how we pay for care; we must actively explore new ways to pay for it.

Just as we, as patients, want to hear about cutting-edge best practices to keep our bodies healthy, so our state needs to move to the forefront when it comes to how we pay for care so we can keep our state finances healthy . . .

Demographics is one of our world’s biggest drivers of innovation, because you can actually see the demographic change ahead.  And in the articles above, you can see that in the world of changing aging, staying the same isn’t an option.  It’s why a host of organizations in Minnesota recently came together to develop new ideas for aging and funding at the non-partisan Citizens League.  Read their ideas here.  It’s why the report Prepare Minnesota for Alzheimer’s 2020 was recently born.  And, on a national level, it was why the CLASS Act is being shaped.  We’re all aging.  And we all need to be part of shaping a future that is better.