This post is the fourth in a series centering obesity as a health equity issue for older adults. ASA published a series of fact sheets to inform and educate the aging services network on prioritizing obesity care for older adults, to advocate for the health and well-being of older Americans, including ensuring greater access and options to the full continuum of obesity care and treatment for older adults.
On Dec. 3, ASA member-advocates from across the country gathered—virtually but powerfully—to send a unified message to Congress: belonging is not abstract. Belonging is policy. Belonging is infrastructure. Belonging is what allows older adults to thrive, not just survive.
This was ASA’s inaugural Virtual Hill Day, themed Prioritizing the Health and Well-Being of Older Americans, which offered more than a set of legislative requests. It was a call to action rooted in the idea that older adults deserve to be seen, valued, and supported by the systems designed to serve them. When older adults experience belonging, they’re not navigating aging alone. They’re connected—to community, to resources, to care, and to a future that still includes them.
Our member-advocates carried this message into meetings with Congressional offices, grounding the day in two intertwined priorities: protecting resources for a rapidly growing aging population and ensuring equitable access to the full continuum of obesity care. Each priority is, at its heart, about ensuring that older adults—across geography, identity, income and health status—can age with dignity, independence and connection.
Belonging Means Protecting the Foundations That Support Us as We Age
The demographic shift reshaping our nation is profound. By 2029, for the first time in U.S. history, adults ages 65 and older will outnumber children. One in five Americans will be older adults. And by 2040, the population of people ages 85 and older will nearly double. Yet the programs designed to support us as we age—nutrition assistance, home- and community-based services, family caregiver supports, senior centers, care coordination, and more—have not kept pace. In fact, many have eroded.
When Congress protects and expands resources for aging services, they invest not only in programs, but also in the social fabric that allows older adults to stay connected, cared for, and valued.
Our aging infrastructure reflects decades of underinvestment, despite the fact that federal dollars for aging services generate nearly three times more in non-federal support and reduce reliance on costlier institutional care.
Belonging requires more than sentiment; it requires stable and strengthened public systems that meet people where they are and allow them to remain rooted in their homes and communities. When Congress protects and expands resources for aging services, they invest not only in programs, but also in the social fabric that allows older adults to stay connected, cared for, and valued.
Belonging Also Means Access to Evidence-Based Obesity Care for Older Adults
Two in every five adults ages 60 and older now live with obesity—a chronic disease linked to more than 230 medical conditions and significant limitations in mobility, independence and quality of life. Yet most older adults have never been offered evidence-based care, counseling or treatment options.
Obesity in older age is not about appearance; it is about belonging in one’s body, belonging in one’s home, and belonging in one’s community. It is about the daily realities of walking without pain, reducing caregiver burden, managing multiple chronic conditions, and maintaining the strength required to stay engaged in life.
While the Administration’s recent decision to expand access to certain anti-obesity medications for some Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries marks a historic step forward, policymakers must understand: access to medication alone is not comprehensive care.
True belonging in the healthcare system requires Medicare modernization that:
- Recognizes obesity as a treatable chronic disease,
- Expands access to registered dietitians, behavioral therapy and evidence-based lifestyle interventions, and
- Updates outdated coverage rules that limit who can provide Intensive Behavioral Therapy and where it can be delivered.
Policy options such as the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act (TROA; H.R.4231/S.1973) offer pathways for a more holistic, equitable and sustainable approach to care.
When older adults have access to the full spectrum of obesity care, they gain more than clinical interventions—they gain mobility, autonomy and renewed possibility. They gain the ability to participate fully in the communities where they belong.
Belonging Is What Connects Advocacy to Impact
Virtual Hill Day is more than one day of meetings. It’s an expression of collective responsibility—a belief that policy change requires presence, persistence and partnership. ASA’s member-advocates brought not just data, but lived experience, leadership and compassion into conversations with Congressional offices.
Our message was clear: Older adults deserve systems that recognize their worth, respond to their needs, and respect their humanity.
Belonging is what ties these priorities together. Protecting aging services ensures older adults have community-based supports. Expanding obesity care ensures they have equitable access to health interventions that preserve independence and quality of life. Together, these priorities affirm what ASA fights for every day: a society where all of us can age with dignity, agency, and connection.
A Future Where Belonging Is Built In—Not Optional
As we look ahead, the work of Virtual Hill Day continues. Belonging must remain a policy priority—not just within Congress, but across every system that touches the lives of older adults.
And as ASA prepares for a milestone year—On Aging 2026 in Atlanta, the continued growth of the On Aging Institute, the fifth cohort of ASA RISE, new policy frameworks, and deepened local partnerships—our commitment is unwavering: belonging is the strategy, the outcome, and the promise of a just aging future.
Older adults are not on the margins of our society—they are at the center of it. Policy should reflect that truth. And together, as a field, we can build systems worthy of the people we serve.
Patrice L. Dickerson, PhD, is ASA’s Senior Equity Strategy Director.
Photo credit: Shutterstock/Nandani Bridglal
