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Last week, in an article, I reviewed a documentary about how the United States population of Elderly is about to explode but this didn’t review the costs associated with such a large change in demographics. (Documentary Review -> Living Old: Our Aging Society)

Scary Statistics

Well, right now, the United States spends more than 300 Billion Dollars taking care of its elderly population, this accounts for 10 million people. From my previous article, I reviewed that seniors are, in the next few decades, going to swell to well over 70 million. In other words, 7 x 300 Billion = 2.1 Trillion Dollars annually!

The problem is that governments around the world have done little to save up or deal with the ramifications that this poses on the generation of people who will be paying for this increasingly large burden as Seniors live longer lives due to improved medical treatments and prescriptions. Who is going to pay for all this? Well, it will be the children (if they have any) as the ratio of Seniors to Workers is about to undergo a very dramatic correction.

ABC News / USA Today Discoveries

• a third of the 300 billion dollars spent annually is done for “free” by family members
• taking care of one elderly person requires an investment of at least 25 hours (paid by somebody or free by a family member)
• 70% of caregivers are women and 50% work full time already
• most seniors have less then 10K in assets by the time they need caregivers
• cost of a “paid” caregiver is 19$ an hour NOW (this will only increase as demand skyrockets)
• only 10% of seniors have long-term care insurance

Ramifications

If you are smart and have some money, getting into the managed care industry now and establishing yourself is a sure bet to financial freedom in the future. Otherwise, if you have Elderly parents, expect to have to make large modifications in your life as their health declines with age… not only that… expect them to live longer in poor health as well which increases your cost both financially and time wise. If you are a baby boomer without children, the future ramifications of this decision (willing or not) will have an enormous impact on your future plans once your health begins to decline.

My biggest concern about all this is that we are seeing an exponentially growing epidemic in diabetes, cardiovascular related and obesity issues already across the board. The complications from livelong poor lifestyle choices only get more severe, this means that the upcoming baby boomers will be even more of a burden on the medical services industry then the current crop of seniors!

Solutions?

Well, I have resigned myself to accept the fact that when I get old and frail, the government will most likely not take care of me with a guaranteed pension nor medical access. Think about it, after a few decades of spending well over 2.1 trillion dollars a year, where will the money be for poor old me? Draconian solutions such as sending the Elderly on a one way trip to an island won’t work neither, they have too much voting power The only solution I can think of is the global community does a 180 degree switch, stop all investments in defense which makes up the largest proportion of expenditures in most government coffers and reallocate this towards medical research.

Procedures that now cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and have month long waiting lists just won’t cut it, we need to develop alternative technology that cuts this down to a simple doctors visit. I also see a lot of hope in genetic manipulation and treatments at the cellular level. For instance, if you have diabetes, inhale this product 3x a day for a week and you are cured or injection of nano-bots to repair and heal arterial hardening or blockages.

I also think that governments around the world should ban outright all recreational alcohol products, tobacco products, junk foods and institute mandatory exercise programs from early childhood to old age. If you don’t with to participate, no big deal, when your sick – you don’t get any medical care. You have lung disease from years of smoking… well… tough luck! You are a morbidly obese person who grew to 400 lbs eating junk food and need a new hip and knees… well… tough luck to you too! Sounds harsh? Well, if you choose to treat your body like shit all your life, don’t come to me when there is a problem to fix it. Yes, what I am suggestion is revolutionary but the problem coming up that my generation will have to deal with is HUGE. Being old AND healthy will save trillions of dollars.

If you think my policy suggestion is crazy, feel free to propose where you plan on finding the hundreds of trillions of dollars that will be needed worldwide to take care of our Elderly populations?

The Bottom Line

Elderly care will become a MAJOR issue, even bigger then Global Warming over the next few decades as countries around the world try to sustain their baby boomer generation.

References
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/LifeStages/story?id=3307546&page=1