I'm a guardian/conservator for the elderly, as well as a caretaker. In my experience, more often than not, the elderly become mentally impaired long before they lose their physical ability to negotiate their worlds. If you have problems that way, you might have a couple of rough years when friends, relatives, or neighbors don't know how to intervene, but often you'll get yourself in trouble early enough that, finally, people who care will get you investigated by and eventually taken care of by the State, whether in your home or in a nursing home.
I imagine that might happen to nomads in similar fashion. They might have far fewer people around them whom they know and who therefore care almost automatically, but they meet infinitely more people and are vastly more visible to anyone and everyone than the typical elder who withdraws more and more in late life to the low-stimulation, secure and familiar and safe environment of their own home. It's easier to stick out like a sore thumb when at least somebody is seeing you!
I grew up in the days when people were often cared for simply by drugging them and/or strapping them down. Conditions might be terrible, but out of sight was out of mind. Now I see state-paid alternatives, sometimes supplemented by the worth of a person's home ownership, etc., that are absolutely great. Usually in very nice surroundings and often in much better homes than most people come from.
In short, I'm not scared anymore, the way most people of my generation are (I'm in my late 50's). Come what may, unless the State decides to abandon its citizenry entirely, it will likely spend the bulk of its social safety net on children and the elderly, and let the chips fall where they may for the rest. I think someone living alone, even in a gorgeous expensive home, would be in much more danger of a bad outcome in old age than a poor person with actively visiting family and friends, or a nomad who was out and about mingling with the world enough so that infirmities would get noticed and reported.
