Is America’s Health Care System Ready for the Senior Population Boom?

By Mary Helen Gillespie

Michael J. Dowling, President and CEO, Northwell Health, writes in the Dec. 2 issue of Becker’s Hospital Review that while America’s health care delivery system has progressed remarkably over the past half-century, the nation’s burgeoning senior population poses unprecedented challenges, in terms of both our ability to provide — and pay — for their care.

To avoid being overwhelmed by the demands of a graying America, federal and state governments, health care providers, and medical and nursing schools need to double-down on investments they’ve already made to advance geriatric, palliative and other care models that have proven beneficial.

“We face significant shortages of primary care physicians and geriatricians who specialize in the needs of older adults and those with multiple chronic illnesses. Medical and nursing schools and health systems need to provide financial incentives for clinicians-in-training to enter those areas of medicine instead of more-lucrative specialties. If not, there simply won’t be enough doctors or nurses to meet the needs of aging patients,” he wrote.

Nearly one-in-five Americans, about 62 million people, are aged 65 or over. Within the next 30 years, that number is expected to reach 84 million – 23% of the population.