The “When I Was Your Age … ” Guide to Health Care Conversations

Let’s say you’re a millennial and your parents are baby boomers. They may tell you the world was a very different place when they were growing up. And they’re right. When you were born, there were roughly 100 million more Americans than during the first years of your parents’ generation. Baby boomers were born in the wake of World War II, and the early years of their childhood predated Medicaid and Medicare, Roe v. Wade, and the emergence of the AIDS crisis. So, when politics and health care come up, it’s easier to talk past each other without the facts.

In the spirit of encouraging productive conversations, we’ve compiled timelines and events to offer some context for generational conversations. When you find yourself in a conversation that begins “When I was your age … ”,  taking a breath and considering the historical, social, economic and political context is a great way to spark a conversation that leads to greater mutual understanding.

Go to a text version of Guide to Healthcare Conversations.

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