Posts Tagged ‘baby boomers’
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
An intensive new study has found that memory, reasoning and comprehension can start to decline as early as age 45. This finding runs counter to conventional wisdom that mental decline typically begins after the age of 60, according to the researchers “Cognitive function in normal, healthy adults begins to decline earlier than previously thought,” said study author Archana Singh-Manoux. “It is widely believed that cognitive ability does not decline before the age of 60. We were able to show robust cognitive decline even in individuals aged 45 to 49 years,” added Singh-Manoux, research director at INSERM’s Center for Research in Epidemiology & Population Health at the Paul-Brousse Hospital in Paris.
“These findings should be considered in the context of the link between cognitive function and dementia,” Singh-Manoux said. “Earlier research shows small differences in cognitive performance at a young age to predict larger differences in risk of dementia in later life. A thorough understanding of cognitive aging might make it easier to identify those at risk for dementia earlier in life,” she said.
Men aged 45 to 49 saw their reasoning skills decrease by nearly four percent; those aged between 65 and 70 saw their skills drop by about nearly 10 percent. For women, the decline in reasoning neared five percent for those aged 45 to 49 and about seven percent for those 65 to 70, according to the research.
The study’s results are being published in the journal BMJ (formerly called the British Medical Journal). They demonstrate that the average, performance on cognition tasks deteriorated as the subjects aged. The declines were the most obvious among the oldest participants, who were aged 65-70 at the beginning of the 10-year study that began in 1997-99.
In conducting the study, researchers tracked the mental function of more than 7,000 British civil servants for 10 years. They found that even the youngest participants, who were between the ages of 45 and 49 when the study began, showed slight yet measurable declines in short-term memory, mental reasoning, and verbal facility over the course of the study. The declines were too small to be noticed in daily life and were detected only through tests the researchers gave the participants every three to four years. But the findings may have implications for the prevention of dementia, and underscore the importance of taking care of our bodies and minds early in life, the researchers say.
“We, and others, have shown healthy lifestyles and good cardiovascular health to be important for cognitive outcomes,” Singh-Manoux said. “The fact that cognition declines early implies that midlife levels of these factors — health behaviors and cardiovascular risk factors and disease — might be important for cognitive outcomes later in life.”
Researchers haven’t decisively proven that cognitive decline in middle age is a predictor of Alzheimer’s or other dementias; however, the evidence suggests that small changes in midlife mental function can become magnified later in life, says Francine Grodstein, Sc.D., an epidemiologist and associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston. “There is a lot of evidence that (people) with cognitive decline are at highest risk of later developing dementia, so it is likely that preventing or delaying cognitive decline today will help reduce risk of dementia tomorrow,” said Grodstein, who wrote an editorial that accompanied the study.
“On an individual level this doesn’t mean very much — it certainly doesn’t mean that we’re seeing a lot of people with dementia in their 40s. We know that’s not true,” Grodstein said.
Tags: Alzheimer’s Disease, baby boomers, Cognitive function, Dementia, INSERM's Center for Research in Epidemiology & Population Health, Memory reasoning, Mental decline, Paul-Brousse Hospital, Short-term memory, Verbal facility
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Monday, January 16th, 2012
Baby boomers may not like it — and whoever wins the White House this year — but the Medicare that our parents knew and love is destined to change. And it’ll be like it or lump it.
With more than 1.5 million baby boomers enrolling in Medicare every year, the program’s future is one of the most crucial economic issues for anyone who currently is 50 or older. Healthcare costs are the most erratic part of retirement expenses, and Medicare remains a great deal for retirees, who often get benefits worth significantly more than the payroll taxes they paid while working. “People would like to have what they used to have. What they don’t seem to understand is that it’s already changed,” said Gail Wilensky, a former Medicare administrator. “Medicare as we have known it is not part of our future.”
Consider these numbers. Medicare’s giant trust fund for inpatient care is expected to run out of money in 2024. When that happens, the program will collect only enough payroll taxes to pay 90 percent of benefits. Additionally, researchers estimate that as much as one-fifth and even two-thirds of the more than $500 billion that Medicare now spends every year is spent on treatments and procedures of little or no benefit to patients.
Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI), chairman of the House Finance Committee, is leading the charge on changing Medicare. Ryan’s current proposals will not impact people now 55 or older would not have to make any changes. But how would it work? Would it save taxpayers’ dollars? Would it shift costs to retirees, who are least able to afford it? Will Congress ultimately end traditional Medicare? These questions are still waiting for answers. “I’m not sure anybody has come up with a formula on this that makes people comfortable,” said health economist Marilyn Moon, who formerly served as a trustee overseeing Medicare finances.
The White House’s preference is to keep the existing structure of Medicare while “twisting the dials” to control spending, said Medicare trustee, economist Robert Reischauer of the Urban Institute think tank.
Ryan’s original approach would have put 100 percent of future retirees into private insurance. His most recent plan, written with Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), would keep traditional Medicare as an option, competing with private plans.
Writing for AARP, Ricardo Alonzo Zaldiver says that, “This could mean more Medicare recipients joining private insurance plans (currently, only about 25 percent of Medicare recipients are in private ‘Medicare Advantage” plans, while the other three-quarters participate in the traditional, government-run Medicare program). A new voucher-for-private-Medicare plan would be available to anyone currently under 55.
“It could also mean keeping the existing Medicare structure but making certain tweaks to control spending. Under President Obama’s healthcare overhaul, the Independent Payment Advisory Board could force Medicare cuts to service providers if costs rise above certain levels and Congress fails to act. Obama has said he’ll veto any plan to cut Medicare benefits without raising taxes on the wealthy. During failed budget negotiations last summer, he indicated a willingness to gradually raise the Medicare eligibility age to 67, revamp co-payments and deductibles in ways that would raise costs for retirees, and cut payments to drug makers. ‘For the 76 million baby boomers signing up over the next couple of decades, it will pay to be watching.’” President Obama has promised that he will veto any plan to cut Medicare benefits without raising taxes on the wealthy.
The Chicago Sun-Times offers this sage advice: “Fix Medicare, ignore scare talk.” According to writer Steve Huntley, “I’ve contributed to Medicare every year of its existence. Yet, it’s a myth that seniors have paid the costs of their Medicare services, as demonstrated by the research of economists Eugene Steuerle and Stephanie Rennane of the Urban Institute think tank. Their study showed that a two-income couple earning $89,000 a year would pay $114,000 in Medicare taxes during their careers but could expect to receive $355,000 in medical care in retirement. They could get prescriptions, doctor visits and hospital services valued at three times their contribution to Medicare.
“Medicare combined with Medicaid and Social Security add up to an entitlement time bomb – they’ll consume all tax revenues by 2052, according to a Heritage Foundation analysis – for the people who’ll be stuck with the bill: working Americans. In 1950, there were 16 taxpaying workers for each retiree; by the time the baby boomers all retire, there will be two workers for each retiree. Entitlement reform has to happen.”
Tags: baby boomers, Co-payments, Congress, deductibles, Gail Wilensky, Heritage Foundation, Independent Payment Advisory Board, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare Advantage plans, President Barack Obama, Representative Paul Ryan, Robert Reischauer, Senator Ron Wyden, social security, Urban Institute
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Tuesday, August 9th, 2011
A recent report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found a 49 percent increase in emergency department visits for drug-related suicide attempts for women 50 years and older. Women in the 40-69 age bracket are at greater risk of killing themselves than other women, according to research on age-specific suicide rates between 1998 and 2007. In 2007, this age group comprised 60 percent of the 7,328 suicides reported among women. The question is: Why is this happening to middle-aged women?
There is a possibility that it is a question of numbers: One in four American adults has a treatable mental health condition; women in the 40-69-year-old age group represent one of the nation’s fastest-growing populations. Alternatively, it could be a function of baby boomers’ elevated rates of substance abuse, a critical risk factor in suicide, said Julie Phillips, Ph.D., a social demographer and associate professor at Rutgers University. According to Phillips, the age-specific rates were derived from data from the National Center for Health Statistics and the Census Bureau.
During the nine-year time period studied, suicide rates remained fairly stable for women younger than 40; for women older than 70, suicide rates declined. Women 50 and older may be in crisis because pain and sleep disorders — widespread problems related to aging — often lead to increased use of prescription drugs, said Albert Woodward, Ph.D., the project director of SAMHSA’s Drug Abuse Warning Network. According to the SAMHSA report, suicide attempts involving drugs to treat anxiety and insomnia rose 56 percent. Woodward said that middle-aged women may experience depression because of declining health and other negative life events. Loneliness and depression also are risk factors for suicide. “Older women, especially in the U.S., are more isolated and separated from daily human contact outside of work and the internet,” said Ellyn Kaschak, Ph.D., emeritus professor of psychology at San Jose State University and the editor of the journal Women & Therapy.
Dr. LeslieBeth Wish, a psychologist and licensed clinical social worker in Sarasota, FL, has found a surprising increase in suicide attempts by women aged between 45 and 54. Women are susceptible to depression but older women may also be suffering from pre-menopause hormone fluctuations that can affect mood changes and depression. According to Dr. Wish, women in their middle years are more aware of their mortality and may be disenchanted that they will never be happy. Becoming an empty nester also is stressful.
Of greater concern is the 67 percent increase of women taking hydrocodone, and an astonishing 210 percent increase for women taking oxycodone. According to SAMHSA administrator Pamela S. Hyde, J.D., “The steep rise in the abuse of narcotic pain relievers by women is extremely dangerous and we are now seeing the results of this public health crisis in our emergency rooms. Emergency rooms should not be the frontline in our efforts to intervene. Friends, family, and all members of the community must do everything possible to help identify women who may be in crisis and do everything possible to reach out and get them needed help.”
Because they are often members of the so-called “Sandwich Generation,” middle-aged women frequently discount their own needs as they organize commitments to jobs, marriages, kids, and aging parents. Many say they don’t get enough sleep and eat too much junk-food. According to medical experts, these habits — combined with soaring cortisol (a steroid hormone, or glucocorticoid, produced by the adrenal gland) levels — from stress — could mean this will be the first generation of women who don’t live five to seven years longer than males.
Tags: anxiety, baby boomers, Census Bureau, depression, Drug Abuse Warning Network, Drug-related suicide attempts, Empty nester, Insomnia, Middle-aged women, National Center for Health Statistics, Pain, Pre-menopause hormone fluctuations, Sleep disorders, substance abuse, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Suicide, Treatable mental health conditions, Women & Therapy, “Sandwich Generation”
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Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011
At a time when concern about federal deficits and the national debt are growing, few quarrel with the need to reform Medicare. The health insurance program for seniors and people with certain disabilities accounts for 15 percent of the federal budget – in third place behind Social Security and defense spending. That share is rising as healthcare costs continue to rise and more baby boomers retire, threatening the program’s long-term solvency.
Several of the most prominent solutions under discussion largely derive their savings by shifting a greater share of the cost onto beneficiaries. The plan sponsored by Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) and passed by the House of Representatives would significantly cut Medicare spending by capping the government’s contribution to the program and transforming it into a system of “premium supports” given to seniors to help subsidize their purchase of private insurance plans, with seniors paying additional costs. This would double out-of-pocket spending by the average senior to $12,500 each year, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates.
The ability of a majority of seniors to shoulder that burden appears dubious. Just five percent of Medicare beneficiaries make $80,000 or more, a figure that includes any income from a spouse. For the 47 percent of seniors who are at or close to poverty, on average they are already spending nearly 25 percent of their budgets on healthcare, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“There’s this impression that there’s a great deal of wealth among the Medicare population, this image of wealthy seniors playing golf and enjoying their retirement years,” said Tricia Neuman, director of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Medicare Policy Project.“But while some are lucky to do so, many are living on a fixed income, struggling to make ends meet…with really limited capacity to absorb rising costs.”
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s report, raising Medicare’s eligibility to 67 in 2014 would generate an estimated $5.7 billion in net savings to the federal government, but also result in an estimated net increase of $3.7 billion in out-of-pocket costs for 65- and 66-year-olds, and $4.5 billion in employer retiree healthcare costs. In addition, the study projects that the change would raise premiums by about three percent both for those who remain on Medicare and for those who obtain coverage through health reform’s new insurance exchanges. The study assumes both full implementation of the health reform law and the higher eligibility age in 2014 in order to estimate the full effect of both the law and the policy proposal. In the absence of the health reform law, raising Medicare’s age of eligibility would result in an increase in the uninsured, according to other studies, as many older Americans would have difficulty finding affordable coverage in the individual market in the absence of Medicare. With health reform, virtually all 65- and 66-year-olds would be expected to obtain alternative sources of coverage.”
Healthcare remains a major focus of budget talks on Capitol Hill,Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) recently told the American College of Surgeons (ACS). Every group that relies on federal funding should expect a 10 to 20 percent drop in that funding. When Dr. L.D. Britt, president of the ACS, warned that such cuts could send some healthcare providers into a “tailspin,” Kirk responded that “the tailspin is the U.S. economy. There is a new audience at play,” Kirk said, referring to U.S. creditors. “The judgments they render, they are swift and severe.” Kirk is optimistic that a solution to the country’s debt-ceiling dilemma “will have a way of concluding itself one day before the August 2 deadline.”
Tags: American College of Surgeons, baby boomers, Congressional Budget Office, Defense spending, Deficits, healthcare costs, Healthcare insurance exchanges, healthcare reform, House of Representatives, Kaiser Family Foundation, Low-income senior citizens, Medicare, Medicare Policy Project, Private insurance plans, Representative Paul Ryan, Senator Mark Kirk, social security
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Monday, July 25th, 2011
Baby boomers are more concerned with the ways that aging impacts their physical and mental health than the role it plays in their appearance. Fully 65 percent of baby boomers – who are currently between the ages of 47 and 65 — expressed concern with their health, with 26 percent focused on retaining their mental faculties. Just eight percent mentioned appearance as their biggest aging concern.
Boomers also are slightly less active than the previous generation. Just 57 percent started a regular exercise program in 2010. Of those who exercise regularly, 35 percent are walkers. Nearly 4.3 million adults 50 or older used illicit drugs in the last year, according to a report from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. According to the agency, substance abuse in this age group could create public health challenges over the next decade.
Boomers are in less agreement about whether their longer lives will be better than the previous generation: 49 percent expect a better life than their parents, while another 25 percent believe it will be about the same. Another 26 percent expect that the quality of their lives will be worse than their parents.
Although younger adults believe that 60 is the start of old age, Baby Boomers strongly disagree. The median age they cite is 70. Twenty-five percent of Boomers insist you’re not old until you’re 80. “In my 20s, I would have thought the 60s were bad, but they’re not so bad at all,” said Lynn Brown, 64, a retired legal assistant and grandmother of 11 living near Phoenix. Boomers – 77 million strong — are celebrating their 47th through 65th birthdays in 2011. In general, they are more optimistic about their futures than past generations. Americans born in the population boom that followed World War II are more likely to be energized about the positive aspects of aging, such as retirement, than worried about the negatives, such as poor health.
“The findings that midlifers who are worried about aging are focused more on their health over physical looks may seem surprising to some — but then when you see stunning boomer role models like Susan Sarandon and Helen Mirren, it all makes sense,” said Cindy Pearlman, entertainment writer for the Chicago Sun Times and best-selling author of “The Black Book of Hollywood Beauty Secrets” series, and regular contributor to LifeGoesStrong.com’s Style channel. “Even in a town like Hollywood, where you’d expect nips and tucks everywhere you turn, many celebrities are saying that the secret to looking great at any age is accepting the inevitable changes that the years bring, while staying in shape and embracing your own sense of style.”
Many baby boomers have no problem working till they’re 65 or 70 as long as they’re not doing heavy lifting. A majority are enthusiastic about aging and have less concerns about physical ailments than their parents’ generation. Tom Beumont understands that the current status of Social Security will require him to work longer, but he is fine with that. “We kind of learned from our parents…we have a more diverse background and we also exercise more so that’s more important to us”, Beumont said.
Cindy Black, a nurse, said a lot of the people she sees at a clinic work too much. “I think we are burning the candle at both ends. They went to bed earlier back then and drank more water,” Black said. Black said that while baby boomers exercise more than their parents and drink and smoke less, their fast paced lifestyle has a price. According to Black, Boomers might end up working themselves to death, literally. “They laugh when I tell them this but they need to go to bed by 10 o’clock.”
Baby Boomers are also concerned about their independence. Boomers primarily worry about losing their independence because of illness, while 44 percent are concerned about experiencing memory loss. Approximately 41 percent have concerns about remaining financially self-sufficient. The hedonistic Boomer generation forever changed the social scene with the dawning age of the flower child, and the explosion of the sexual revolution during the 1960s and 1970s.
Just 18 percent of Boomers worry about dying, while another 22 percent are moderately concerned about it. More than two-thirds expect to live to at least age 76, and one in six expects to live into their 90s.
Tags: Aging, baby boomers, Chicago Sun Times, Cindy Pearlman, Healthcare, Helen Mirren, LifeGoesStrong.com's Style channel, mental health, Physical health, retirement, social security, substance abuse, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Susan Sarandon, The Black Book of Hollywood Beauty Secrets"
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Thursday, May 12th, 2011
Healthcare construction rose nearly 50 percent to $12.6 billion in 2010, an increase from the $8.5 billion reported in 2009. Many medical development experts are now saying that the industry has come back almost as strongly as prior to the recession. Healthcare assets remain strong because of the fundamentals of its existence; essentially, the growing and aging population. Additionally, consolidations have hit the industry hard, with successful mergers typically resulting in redevelopment or expansion plans.
Healthcare construction spending grew more than 10 percent for seven years, and then stalled. The halt still represents an enhanced growth than almost any other construction market during the recession, which deepened as a result of the credit freeze that began in the fall of 2008. Throughout the slowdown, hospital construction spending increased nine percent when compared with the period before the credit freeze; spending for specialized medical office buildings fell 17 percent. The slowdown in medical office spending corresponds to trends in other developed financed sectors, although the slowdown began later and has been less severe. Reduced income and unhealthy balance sheets caused some developers to lose access to credit. Others lost credit because lenders had concerns about cash flow coming from new capacity in a depressed economy.
Healthcare construction spending should return to a 10 percent annual growth rate in 2011, a reflection of the usual cyclical surge that follows a recession. The rebound for hospital construction spending is a result of delayed stimulus plan funding and the resumption of work that was put on hold while healthcare reform was debated in Washington, D.C.
The Urban Land Institute (ULI) has recognized that the growing demand for medical services – needed to treat aging baby boomers, combined with shifts in approaches to treatments to curb rising costs — will significantly increase the need for new and redeveloped medical office buildings. According to a new report, The Outlook for Health Care, published by the ULI and Seavest Inc., the increase in investment and development to fill that demand will strengthen the healthcare industry’s role as an economic development engine throughout the United States.
The Outlook for Health Care, written by economist Gary Shilling, discusses long-term trends and drivers contributing to the demand for more medical facilities and all-new healthcare facility products such as wellness centers. The reason is that baby boomers are living longer and need a greater range of services; technology changes have required retrofits or new development; growth in the number of insured Americans under the healthcare reform legislation; ongoing growth in healthcare-related jobs; the shift toward outpatient treatment facilities; and growth in the number of physicians employed by hospitals.
Shilling discussed the report at a forum, “Anchor Institutions as Catalysts for Urban Investments,” hosted by ULI in Washington, D.C. “Both demand and supply factors point to rapid growth in spending on medical services and medical office buildings for many years. Medical care will continue to grow rapidly and steadily for two basic reasons – it is an essential human service, and it is heavily supported by the government,” Shilling said.
Tags: baby boomers, Balance sheets, Bank examiners, Credit freeze, Gary Shilling, GlobeSt.com, Healthcare construction, healthcare reform, Inc, Medical office buildings, recession, Seavest, Stimulus plan, The Outlook for Health Care, Urban Land Institute, Weak credit, Wellness Centers, “Anchor Institutions as Catalysts for Urban Investments”
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Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
As Baby Boomers celebrate their 65th birthdays at the rate of one every eight seconds, the nation’s physician shortage is growing. “This is not a surprise, of course, but I hope that the oft-repeated statistic will force our nation and our government to face the harsh reality of America’s current physician shortage, our growing underserved populations, and the dismal issue of access for those newly insured after 2014 under provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” said Cecil B. Wilson, M.D., and president of the American Medical Association (AMA).
According to Wilson, the AMA anticipates that the nation will be short by at least 125,000 physicians by 2025. This year, 22 states and 17 medical specialty organizations are reporting dwindling numbers of practitioners. Many physicians have so many patients that they have to limit the number of Medicare enrollees they can see because reimbursement rates are not high enough to make a profit. “For decades, we have watched the physician population move into cities and high-population areas, leaving vast areas of this country woefully underserved,” Dr. Wilson said. “There still is a primary-care shortage — at least partially because pay differentials for primary-care physicians make it even more difficult to repay medical school debts, which average $155,000. We see an even larger shortage in the Hispanic, black and other minority communities — partly because of high medical school costs but also because there are few role models for those kids. And then there is 2014, the year of shrinking access. That year, when the full provisions of the health reform law kick in, we will see 32 million more patients — people who up to now have been uninsured and often without a physician.”
Complicating the situation is the fact that the Department of Health and Human Services estimates that as many as 33 percent of physicians practicing today will retire over the next 10 years.
The outlook for primary-care physicians is especially grim, according to the Association of American Colleges (AAMC). The AAMC estimates that the nation will need an estimated 45,000 primary-care physicians and 46,000 surgeons and medical specialists once the new healthcare law is fully implemented. “It’s certainly the worst (shortage) that we’ll have seen in the last 30 years,” said AAMC chief advocacy officer Atul Grover. “For the first time since the 1930s, our number (of physicians) per capita will start to drop in the next couple of years. That’s fewer doctors per person, but at the same time, since people are aging and have more chronic illnesses, each person is going to need more healthcare. That’s a pretty bad situation.”
At present, the United States has 709,700 physicians (in all specialties) with a demand for 723,400 – that’s a shortfall of 13,700 doctors. By comparison, in 2020, there will be 759,800 physicians (in all specialties) with a need for 851,300 physicians; essentially that represents 91,500 too few doctors. Once healthcare reform kicks in, 32 million more Americans will have access to medical insurance and 36 million to Medicare. “As more people get insured, they are going to seek out the care they probably should have been getting all along but haven’t been able to necessarily access. That’s why those numbers look worse in the next 10 years than we previously had estimated,” Grover said.
Peter J. Weiss, M.D., respectfully disagrees. In fact, he thinks that the physician shortage is all in the AMA’s Dr. Wilson’s head. “It’s simple, when the doctor supply goes up — the amount of care, and the profits, rise too,” according to Weiss. “I’m not blaming physicians for this problem, the causes of inappropriate care are complex, but if we just got rid of unnecessary care, would we have a ‘physician shortage?’ Lastly, historically doctors have acted aggressively to protect their turf - both as a profession and within specialties. How much routine healthcare could be rendered by nurse practitioners, nurses, pharmacists and other more numerous and less costly providers? Studies suggest that a huge fraction of care doesn’t need to be rendered by a doctor, but what prevents this? You know the answer — the physician lobby.”
Tags: American Medical Association, Association of American Colleges, Atul Grover, baby boomers, M.D., Medical school debt, Medicare, nurse practitioners, nurses, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Peter J. Weiss, Pharmacists, physician shortage, primary-care physicians, Reimbursement rates, Specialists, Underserved populations, Unnecessary care
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Tuesday, December 21st, 2010
Approximately 8.2 million of the 8.6 million uninsured baby boomers (Americans between the ages of 50 and 64) will have access to healthcare coverage in 2014, thanks to the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. This is just one finding of a new study by the Commonwealth Fund, entitled Realizing Health Reform’s Potential: Adults Ages 50 – 64 and the Affordable Care Act of 2010.
According to the study, 3.5 million insured boomers will be eligible for subsidized private insurance; another 3.3 million will qualify for Medicaid; and 1.4 million will be able to access non-subsidized private insurance. Those without coverage will include approximately 377,000 undocumented immigrants.
Unemployment drives much of the baby boomers’ need for healthcare coverage. The Commonwealth Fund study notes that “Losses in coverage in the 50 – to — 64 age group have been driven by record high unemployment. Approximately 2.2 million workers aged 55 and older were unemployed in November 2010. Unemployed workers between the ages of 55 and 64 had been jobless for an average of 45 weeks, the highest unemployment duration for any group under age 65 in this time period. As a result, the number of uninsured people in this age group climbed in 2010 as options for affordable healthcare dwindled and family budgets became more constrained.”
The Commonwealth Fund said early provisions in the health reform law that could benefit baby boomers also include the following:
- Create high-risk pools for people with pre-existing conditions
- Impose a ban on lifetime coverage limits and gradually eliminate annual limits
- Cover preventive services
- Create an early retiree reinsurance program
- Create a new long-term care insurance program
Tags: baby boomers, Commonwealth Fund, healthcare reform law, Medicaid, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Realizing Health Reform’s Potential: Adults Ages 50 – 64 and the Affordable Care Act of 2010, Subsidized private insurance, Undocumented immigrants, Unemployment, uninsured
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Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010
Americans are aging and living longer than ever, according to a report entitled “Older Americans 2010: Key Indicators of Well-Being” compiled by 15 federal agencies.
The full report, which details demographics, economics, health status, health risks and healthcare can be found at a dedicated website. According to the report, Americans who live to 65 can expected to survive approximately 18.5 additional years, four more years than in 1960. Women who live to 85 can expect to live 6.8 more years and men 5.7 years. As impressive as those life expectancies are, people living in most of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Costa Rica – and even Cuba — can expect to live longer.
An estimated 39 million Americans were 65 or older in 2008 – approximately 13 percent of the population. In 2030 – when the entire baby boomer generation will be 65 or older – there will be 72 million senior citizens or approximately 20 percent of the population. By 2050, the over-85 population is expected to grow from 5.8 million to 19 million. Healthcare costs for the average senior, adjusted for inflation, rose from $9,224 in 1992 to $15,081 in 2006. Heart disease remains the leading cause of death for people 65 and older, though at half the rate recorded in 1981 – just 1,297 per 100,000. Strokes, cancer, respiratory diseases and Alzheimer’s are the next leading causes of death. Healthcare ate up 28 percent of out-of-pocket spending among the poor and nearly poor in 2006; that compares to 12 percent in 1977.
Tags: Alzheimer's Disease, baby boomers, federal government, healthcare costs, life expectancy, senior citizens
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Friday, April 17th, 2009
With 78 million baby boomers marching towards retirement, the U.S. population is older and less healthy as cases of obesity, diabetes and other chronic diseases increase, says Donna F. Jarmusz, Alter+Care Senior Vice President, in a recent interview for the Inspire blog. These same consumers dislike inconvenient, institutional healthcare delivery systems, are demanding and have high expectations. We have a drive-through mindset and enjoy everyday consumer experiences– buying a cup of coffee, drive-up banking, picking up dry cleaning. We hardly think about them because they’re all convenient and accessible.
Consumers are looking for a similar consumer focus in their healthcare services. They are also looking to healthcare providers for preventative health resources to achieve healthier lifestyles.
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Donna Jarmusz on the Healthcare Village:
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Tags: Ambulatory surgery center, ambulatory-care facilities, baby boomers, Cardiac rehab, chronic diseases, consumers, credit, diabetes, diease management, GI centers, Healthcare referrals, Healthcare Village, Hospital capital, hospitals, institutional healthcare, Liability insurance, obesity, Office of the Inspector General, OIG, Oncology, Outpatient services, physicians, Radiology, reimbursements, Retail healthcare, retirement, Revenue-sharing partnerships, wellness center, Wellness Centers
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