Functional Disability and Health Care Expenditures for Older Persons
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Open Access
- 26 November 2001
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Medical Association (AMA) in Archives of internal medicine (1960)
- Vol. 161 (21) , 2602-2607
- https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.161.21.2602
Abstract
PERSONS 65 YEARS and older currently comprise less than 13% of the US population but account for more than 35% of total health care expenditures.1 The rapid growth of this segment of the population and its increased demands on the health care system have led to concerns about Medicare's financial solvency.2 A recent longitudinal study3 of the effect of longevity on short- and long-term care medical spending concluded that the growing number of people older than 65 years, rather than their increasing longevity, will have the largest effect on medical expenditures for the elderly. However, this study did not examine the relationship between the health status of older persons and their medical expenditures. As the population ages, it is also undergoing changes in health status, leading to speculation that these changes may modulate the effects of growing numbers of older persons on the health care system.4Keywords
This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- THE EFFECT OF LONGEVITY ON SPENDING FOR ACUTE AND LONG-TERM CAREEvidence-Based Eye Care, 2000