Americans are living longer than in the past and the percentage of the population that is 65 years old and older is rapidly increasing. The aging of the US po(k)pulation will have major impacts on family life in the twenty-first century. Older people are growing in number and also as a percentage of the American population. Since health problems tend to increase in later life, the rising proportion of the elderly has led to concerns about their impact on the health care system as a whole as well as on the costs associated with Medicare and Medicaid.