Baby Boomers Effect on Health Care
Baby Boomers’ Effect On Health Care
Salvatore Manzella
May 27, 2013
HCS Health Care Consumer-Trends and Marketing
Jacqueline Jeff
Baby Boomers’ Effect in Health Care
As the baby boomer generation begins to reach retirement age, there has been much speculation as to what affect they will have on the health care industry. The baby boomer generation is the group of people born between 1946 and 1964. At one point, there were more than 76 million of them, of which 4 million died before 2000. With all this in mind, I will discuss what specific effects they will have now they are getting to that “elderly” stage. One word used by many people when they describe how the baby boomers will affect health care is apocalyptic. We all know that elderly people have to see the doctor quite frequently as their bodies start to deteriorate and begin to not work as well as it did when they were younger. It is believed that with this many people needing that much attention from the health care providers that the younger generations could face permanent inflation or high taxes and very possibly it could be both. Others believe that it will put such a strain on the insurance providers that the amount of coverage for everyone is going to be dropped as well. Another group of people think that with the cost of Medicare (government run insurance for those 65 and older) skyrocketing, the national debt will reach a point of no return. Why will all of this happen, you wonder? As mentioned before, elderly people have to see the doctor a lot more frequently than younger people. When the average generation holds about 60-65 million people, adding nearly 20 million more to that all at once is quite a large amount. Let’s put it this way. A computer can only hold so much memory. When it begins to store so much information on it, then it begins to slow down and not run as efficiently and needs more ram put in it. If too much is put on to it at once, then it could fry the system and
Salvatore Manzella
May 27, 2013
HCS Health Care Consumer-Trends and Marketing
Jacqueline Jeff
Baby Boomers’ Effect in Health Care
As the baby boomer generation begins to reach retirement age, there has been much speculation as to what affect they will have on the health care industry. The baby boomer generation is the group of people born between 1946 and 1964. At one point, there were more than 76 million of them, of which 4 million died before 2000. With all this in mind, I will discuss what specific effects they will have now they are getting to that “elderly” stage. One word used by many people when they describe how the baby boomers will affect health care is apocalyptic. We all know that elderly people have to see the doctor quite frequently as their bodies start to deteriorate and begin to not work as well as it did when they were younger. It is believed that with this many people needing that much attention from the health care providers that the younger generations could face permanent inflation or high taxes and very possibly it could be both. Others believe that it will put such a strain on the insurance providers that the amount of coverage for everyone is going to be dropped as well. Another group of people think that with the cost of Medicare (government run insurance for those 65 and older) skyrocketing, the national debt will reach a point of no return. Why will all of this happen, you wonder? As mentioned before, elderly people have to see the doctor a lot more frequently than younger people. When the average generation holds about 60-65 million people, adding nearly 20 million more to that all at once is quite a large amount. Let’s put it this way. A computer can only hold so much memory. When it begins to store so much information on it, then it begins to slow down and not run as efficiently and needs more ram put in it. If too much is put on to it at once, then it could fry the system and
References: 1) Gigante, S. (2013). How baby boomers will impact the health care industry. Retrieved from http://www.cnbc.com/id/35524106 2) Edlin, M. (2013). Baby boomers trend toward higher drug utilization. Retrieved fromhttp://managedhealthcareexecutive.modernmedicine.com/managed-healthcare- executive/news/baby-boomers-trend-toward-higher-drug-utilization 3) English, M. (2013). Discovery health "5 Wats baby boomers are changing long-term care". Retrieved fromhttp://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/aging/baby- boomers/5-ways-baby-boomers-are-changing-long-term-care.htm 4) Blumenthal, S. M.D. (2013). Baby boomers: Public health 's biggest challenge. Retrieved fromhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-blumenthal/baby-boomers- health_b_843207.html 5) Garber, J. (2013). Health care marketing strategy and the baby boomers. Retrieved from http://www.walker-marketing.com/health-care-marketing-strategy-and-the- baby-boomers/