"Welcome to our cruise ship, without the water."

From the moment I stepped onto the Iris Place campus, just off Epps Bridge Rd., I knew I was in for a different experience. Seated atop a rolling hill overlooking lush woods and private gardens for the residents, it is a type of retirement paradise, the kind of well-kept community that 401k managers have in mind when seeking out shrewd investments.

Iris Place, and its parent company Holiday Retirement (if there were ever a more telling and transparent company name, I have yet to find it), only accept private pay, no long term-care insurance policies, no Medicare and no Medicaid. Just the type of cold-hard cash that people tend to have on hand after years of thoughtful planning and saving. (The company is actually starting to take VA benefits as well, opening the door for customers who in the past haven't had the same access. Side note: this deal was negotiated by a man with the last name Machete, and by all accounts he fought for the acceptance of veteran's benefits with all of the steely resolve that his name implies.)

Ron Smith and his wife Jackie are one set of live-in managers at the facility, and whenever they show the place to someone new, they always like to say, "Welcome to our cruise ship, without the water." Holiday Retirement owns over 370 independent living facilities across the US, and one of the unique amenities offered to Iris Place residents is the ability to travel all over the country and stay for free at any of the other Holiday Retirement facilities.

This mobility is the main sticking point in thinking about independent care. When we tend to think of independent living, we tend to think of spry seniors, engaging in retirement community hijinks, but as Ron Smith pointed out, the definition of “independent” has changed over the past thirty years. Whereas at one point we amy have viewed walkers, oxygen tanks, wheelchairs and even personal caregivers as clear signs that a person was losing their independence, the official policy at Iris Place and for Holiday Retirement nationwide is that each of these things are a tool that enables a person to maintain their own independence.

Though on the one hand this seems to be a very empowering way of talking about aging, it also represents a subtle effort on the part of the company to loosen the rules and keep people living in independent living facilities longer. Iris Place does not have any assisted living facilities, and so once a person loses their independence, they have to move somewhere else, thus causing Iris Glen to lose the minimum $2200 monthly rent the person had been paying.

There is also research that shows that when the elderly maintain their independence, they also maintain a higher quality of life and are more likely to live longer than expected. So we can’t and shouldn’t demonize affluent retirement communities for offering a desired service to people who can afford it, and who show health benefits from it. But we can call into question and make sure that they are still offering the level of care that they claim to offer, and that the residents are as happy, healthy and satisfied as they seem to be.