When the Middle Disappears, Aging Collapses.

The middle is where the system breaks down.

At the top, wealth buys security. At the bottom, Medicaid provides a lifeline. But in between lies the vast majority of America — families who worked, saved, and contributed their whole lives — and it’s in this middle that the ground is giving way.

I saw it firsthand at the Plant Home. This wasn’t just one facility closing. It was the unraveling of a promise. For generations, middle-income Mainers had a place that honored their lives and protected their dignity. But when the system ignored the middle, even that stability collapsed.

The consequences are bigger than one building or one community. When the middle is erased, everything falls apart. Families drain their savings overnight. Workers burn out under impossible care demands. Communities lose their anchors. Hospitals discharge patients into thin air. Policymakers scramble to patch holes with programs never designed to carry the weight.

And here’s the reality: the middle isn’t just another constituency. The middle is the backbone of aging. They are the taxpayers, the veterans, the caregivers, the quiet strength that built towns, schools, and economies. Erase them, and you erase the backbone of aging itself.

That’s why the middle can’t be ignored, and why I refuse to stop talking about it. Fixing aging isn’t about tinkering at the edges. It’s about rebuilding the system around the reality most families live in: not rich, not poor, but right in the middle. Choices before crisis. Support that doesn’t punish stability. Leadership that crosses party lines to protect the core.

The Plant Home showed us what happens when we fail to act. The middle is where aging gets real. And if we don’t protect it, the collapse won’t stop in Maine — it will spread everywhere.