Options to Control the Rising Health Care Costs of Older Americans

Abstract

The author rejects suggestions that age limits be set for the allocation of government-supported health benefits in order to reduce the projected growth of health care costs for older Americans. He proposes increased investment in research targeted toward preventing and treating those diseases that produce the greatest need for long-term care in our aging population. Increased attention to preventing disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease would not produce new and more costly burdens on the health care system and could lead to the compression of the needs for long-term care into a few short months or years, thereby decreasing the substantial cost of services for victims of the diseases which afflict older persons. (KIE abstract)