The Problem Of Aging Population

The Older Americans Act (OAA) funds critical services that keep older adults healthy and independent—services like meals, job training, senior centers, caregiver support, transportation, health promotion, benefits enrollment, and more. The Act is overdue for reauthorization—and Congress needs to seize this opportunity to update and renew its commitment to these programs and those they serve. To ensure America’s aging population is able to maintain and live healthy lives provisions are needed to the current OAA. These provisions include:

Current numbers show substantial growth from the eighties, and estimates suggest that the demand for long term care among the elderly will more than double in the next thirty years. (Feder, Komisar, and Niefeld) This growth will exacerbate concerns about balancing institutional and noninstitutional care, assuring quality of care, and most importantly adopting and sustaining financing mechanisms that equitably and adequately protect the elderly who need long-term care.

Experience working in the field of health care lends insight to the growing needs of the older adult population, and the barriers which impede our capacity to meet them. As the Baby Boomer age is approaching older adulthood, the rise for financial,

Baby boomer aging is one of the large causative factors of this increase in demand (Glicken & Miller, 2013, p.1883-1889). According to Glicken & Miller (2013), the elderly population will nearly double in the next fifteen years putting a strain on the healthcare workforce. Also, more than half of physicians have intentions on limiting care access with regards to Medicare patients. Many medical doctors are refusing to care for Medicaid patients. This is a result of the growing number of individuals now with the means to afford healthcare due to the

One dominant economic feature of the healthcare industry is the growing need for both basic and specialized healthcare due to the continued aging of the “Baby Boomer” generation. This generation consists of over 79,000,000 individuals born in the US between 1946 and 1964. As this generation has aged, the need for healthcare has increased dramatically. Let us take a look at some statistics:

It is widely believed that the aging of the U.S. population is a major driver of the annual growth in the demand for health care and in national health spending

Using Item B and elsewhere, assess the view that an ageing population creates problems for society

Health care in the United States is currently facing a looming crisis that requires an urgent response of intervention. With the baby boomers population on the rise, there will ultimately be an increased need for long-term care (LTC) services. Pratt (2015) defines baby boomers as “the name given to the large number of people born in the period following World War II, between 1946 and 1964” (p. 17). According to Mikulaschek (2013), “Beginning in 2010, the roughly seventy-eight million baby boomers began turning sixty-five at a rate of three to four million per year leading to growing concerns over meeting their healthcare demands” (p. 86). This brings the number from about forty million in 2010 to seventy-two million in 2030 causing them to account for almost twenty percent of the total U.S. population (Mikulaschek, 2013, p. 96; Pratt, 2015, p. 17). This alarming rate will correspond to the increasing number of elderly individuals with chronic conditions who depend on LTC services for daily functioning (Pratt, 2015, p. 17). This influx of baby boomers presents the health care industry with a plethora of issues related to costs, quality, and access to the LTC services that this population so desperately needs.

As the government’s role in public health remains, major changes have been put into effect, precisely dealing with long-term care. Before the 1930’s, providing care for the elderly was exclusively a local and state run industry. However, after the great depression, a growing demand was placed on providing some type of insurance for that population. The Social Security Act of 1935 was established to assist with “Federal old-age benefits” and was signed into effect by President Roosevelt on August 15, 1935. (Home, 2015) Another major impact to long-term care has been the creation of Medicaid that went into effect in 1965 and was an amendment to the Social Security Act of 1935. “Title XIX of the Social Security Act is a federal and state entitlement program that pays for medical assistance for certain individuals and families with low incomes and resources” Medicaid is a collective effort between state and the government to help provide insurance for eligible citizens. Among those covered under this insurance, are the elderly, disabled and pregnant. Medicaid is the largest source of funding for medical care. The new changes to Medicaid are ongoing and will be put into effect as part of Obamacare.

Medicare is America’s largest health insurance program for the men and women over the age of 65 or with certain disabilities. For many Americans, this a huge part of how they can afford medications, doctor visits and other medical expenses. In recent years the number of Medicare enrollees has doubled (NASI, 2015). The “Baby Boomers”, people born from 1946-1965, is the largest generation within America with roughly 75 million Americans. This generation of Americans are all turning 65 around the same time and enrolling into this medical program. With the amount of new enrollees the total spending for Medicare will rise from 3.6% of the nations GDP to 5.1% by 2030, when the youngest of the baby boomer generation will be 65 (NASI, 2015). Even

The objective of this study is to examine the evolution of programs and services for aging population over the last fifty years. Toward this end, this brief study will conduct a review of literature that addresses these shifts and changes in policy. The timeline of the history of the services and pogroms for the aging population in the United States is shown in the following timeline and an explanation for these develops will next follow the timeline.

Yet of perhaps greatest importance to the American healthcare system and industry is the demographical information of this older population in terms of its particular characteristics and disposition. More specifically, healthcare professionals and policy analysts must understand the aging populations’ economic and living situations, and their overall health status (Jacobsen, Kent, Lee & Mather, 2011). Economic factors are key as they directly pertain to the likelihood of reliance on publically-funded healthcare programs, while “the marital status and living arrangements of the elderly are closely tied to levels of social support, economic well-being, and the availability of caregivers” (Jacobsen et al., 2011, p. 4). The importance of this population’s general health status is, of course, self-explanatory.

The growing concern regarding the financial security of Medicare is one of particular interest to the nearly 72 million baby boomers that become eligible for this government-assisted, and tax-payer bolstered, program over the next two decades. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2010), there will be a rapid increase in baby-boomers between 2010 and 2030, as the entire baby boomer population move into the 65 years and over category (p.3). Political and financial revisions must be made to ensure the security of Medicare as the numbers of individuals paying into this program are soon to be surpassed by the number of individuals drawing-off this program (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). The elderly are also at a disadvantage with transportation to health care visits, picking up prescriptions, and rehabilitation services. There needs to be an establishment of access not only to primary care providers, hospitals, and rehabilitation services, but access to other aspects of the health care system for the elderly population.

The older adult population in the United States has steadily increased thanks to technology and medical advances. While this definitely is an undeniable achievement, it also creates some challenges that society was not as prevalent to face before. Now that people are living longer it’s also means that often times family members are becoming caregivers to their loved ones during their so called golden years. Not only may it be difficult to care for a loved one, but it also becomes even more burdensome when their loved has a disability. In fact “dementia is one of the major causes of disability and dependency among older people worldwide.” (2016). Fortunately there are adult day centers that serve people with dementia and provide services that can benefit them. However many times caregivers are forgotten about and aren’t provided services that can also benefit them as well. While it does take a bit of pressure off of the caregivers while their loved ones are at the day center, it does not eliminate all the other effects. Many people may not be aware that there are detrimental effects that a caregiver may experience as a result of caring for someone with dementia.

After four decades of failure to enact a universal healthcare program, advocates decided to refine their approach in the 1950s, and the strategy that ultimately led to the passage of Medicare and Medicaid was formulated. Wilbur Cohen and I.S. Falk recognized that a health insurance plan focused on Social Security beneficiaries would be much easier to sell than a plan for all Americans. By limiting its benefits to the elderly, Medicare could be portrayed as a program for people who met two important criteria: they had greater need for healthcare coverage and they were especially deserving of public assistance. Because of their age, seniors have relatively high medical costs--when Medicare was passed, average healthcare expenses for people sixty-five or older were twice the average expenses for younger persons. (Orentlicher, D. (2012).