Celebrating National Seniors Day: Aging with Dignity and the Fight for Healthcare

From the Progressive Maryland Blog: https://www.progressivemaryland.org/celebrating_national_seniors_day_2025

Celebrating National Seniors Day: Aging with Dignity and the Fight for Healthcare

By Patty Snee, Healthcare Justice Organizer, Progressive Maryland

(A valentine to all the incredible older adults in our communities across Maryland—you inspire us every day!)

Yesterday, we celebrated National Seniors Day! I’m just catching up because I was busy working on our state and national fight to protect our healthcare in the face of deadly and devastating healthcare cuts in the new federal budget. I hope you had a chance to celebrate. In addition to National Seniors Day, our country, in the past few weeks, has celebrated the 60th Anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid and the 90th Anniversary of Social Security! Monumental milestones! These enduring programs have been providing health and retirement security to millions of older folks for multiple generations. Seniors have contributed to our society all of their lives, and they deserve to age with dignity, respect, and access to the resources they need to thrive.

For seniors, having health care coverage, prescription drug coverage, access to providers, and long-term care means being able to maintain a good standard of living and having a chance to participate in family and community life. Seniors are, after all, the foundation of our families and neighborhoods,

Being born in the 1950s myself, I learned from my parents and my church at a pretty early age that healthcare is and should be a human right. It’s time to make it a reality. Our country has enough money, resources, expertise, and infrastructure to create a universal healthcare system where no senior, and no one of any age, is left out. We can do this–we can make medicines affordable and invest in the healthcare workforce and community-based healthcare programs that bring services directly to seniors and other community members in need.

Since we’re talking about seniors, let’s remember that it’s also important to create spaces where older folks and retirees feel seen, heard, and celebrated. It’s exciting to see spaces popping up that provide opportunities for intergenerational relationship building and activities. Older adults have needs, and they also have a great deal to contribute!

In Baltimore yesterday, my friend and Progressive Maryland member, Crystal Jackson Parker, organized and hosted a wonderful event at the Zeta Center for Healthy and Active Aging in Baltimore City, where seniors were honored and celebrated in a truly special way. The event featured a resource fair to connect the participants with vital services, a spoken word poet and singer who brought joy and inspiration, and lavender sachets gifted to guests as a token of appreciation. It sounds like it was a beautiful example of how to show our seniors that they are cherished members of our community. Crystal, by the way, has long been a fighter for healthcare, environmental, and social justice. Much of her community organizing in Baltimore focuses on advocating for older adults. Her work truly embodies the values we hold dear at Progressive Maryland.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that my wife and I live in Takoma Park, right next door to Washington, D.C, where Trump is staging a military occupation. The seniors I know in D.C. are part of  the resistance to Trump's takeover of their city. It‘s a reminder that, besides supporting seniors, we need to harness their lived experience and power - not just in the the fight to save healthcare but in the fight to save our country.

So, here’s to lifting up National Seniors Day and the milestone anniversaries of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. And to doubling down on the fight to transform our healthcare system, which will allow all seniors to age with dignity. Together, we can build a future where every older adult has the support they need to live their golden years without fear, in peace, and with health security. 

If you’d like to join the fight for healthcare justice or learn more about our work, visit Progressive Maryland’s website.