Nearly 30 percent of adults aged 75 and older have one or more disabilities in performing basic activities of daily living. Additionally, of the more than 2.3 million older adults with severe disability, 84 percent receive some form of public health insurance. We wanted to find out what might be done to help this group more effectively.

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People who have difficulty with bathing, dressing and walking across a room require our health-care system to a greater extent. Those who have trouble performing such activities have higher rates of hospitalizations, longer hospital stays, and more physician visits than those with no disabilities.

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