The Mythology of Boomers Bankrupting Our Healthcare System

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via AlterNet:



The Mythology of Boomers Bankrupting Our Healthcare System

By Maggie Mahar, Health Beat. Posted April 10, 2008.

Facts and myths about how the United States' shrinking work force can pay for the health needs of its retirees.



Berlin, March 13, 2008 -- By bringing 600 government and industry leaders together from more than 50 countries, the "World Health Care Congress Europe" (WHCCE) last month offered a splendid window on the wide variety of solutions that countries around the world are using as they struggle toward healthcare reform. One constant theme of the conference: "No One Thing Works."

When the three-day conference ended, it also was apparent that developed countries share many of the same problems. One that stands out is the fact that our populations are aging. Each country faces the same question: How will a shrinking work force possibly pay for the medicine their nations' retirees will need?

This brings me to Princeton economist Uwe Reinhardt's speech on the very first day of the conference. The only American to speak at WHCCE, Reinhardt focused on what he called "the folklore that people bring to the healthcare policy table." By nature an iconoclast, Reinhardt spent the next 20 minutes shattering some of the myths that have become part of the received wisdom among policymakers.

Begin with the notion that an aging population is a major factor driving healthcare inflation. In the United States this is accepted as a justification for why the nation's healthcare bill now equals more than $2 trillion -- and why we must expect it to climb ever higher.

Bad news is often more gripping than good news, and "if you want to be a popular speaker, you need to feed the paranoia of your audience," Reinhardt observed, pointing to the first slide of his PowerPoint presentation -- a chart illustrating just how quickly we can expect a horde of wrinkly boomers to take over the nation. Some stooped and shriveled, others proudly bloated, these former members of the Pepsi generation will be far more demanding, we're told, than the World War II veterans who preceded them. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/81142/

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