Will Baby Boomers bring down Medicare? A cottage industry runs on blaming Boomers for everything (Boom Bust & Echo: Profiting from the Demographic Shift in the 21st Century
The logic for blaming Boomers goes like this: Boomers make a population bulge. Boomers are aging. Old people get sick. Ergo, old Baby Boomers will overwhelm Medicare.
Despite everything they’re blamed for, old people do not guarantee system failure (and Baby Boomers are not old!…yet). Age might be one factor. But many old, sick people access the system less than the young worried well. Of course, most healthcare spending occurs in the last 6 months of life. An aging population will drive change, but there might be an even bigger factor.
Baby Boomer Attitude
Demographers believe Baby Boomers have attitude. Not just ‘an’ attitude but attitude. They know what they want. They change things they don’t like.
- They won’t put up with waits.
- They won’t put up with no choice.
- They won’t put up with hordes of patients jammed into hallways and EDs because no beds are available.
- They will demand efficiency.
- They will demand great patient service.
- They will want medical experts leading healthcare, not inexperienced bureaucrats and allied health providers.
Boomers expect to stay active, healthy and productive for as long as possible. They want control. If early retirement doesn’t impress them, they want to stay fit and working long past 65. They accept the responsibility of choice and ownership.
Here’s what other’s are saying:
- “If something hurts, they are not going to grimace and bear it.” (Huffington Post)
- Boomers embody involvement, assertiveness, technology, freedom, independence. (American Medical Association)
- Changes in radiology from Boomers – engagement, mobile access, choice. (Medical Imaging Talk Blog)
- Book: Baby Boomers: Can My Eighties Be Like My Fifties?
Baby Boomers in 10 Years
When we look back, people might ask, “Hey, weren’t you involved back then? What did YOU do to improve things?”
We can advocate for change now.
- Fly patients to the USA when wait times exceed a limit….say, 4 weeks?
- Reward hospitals only when they see patients, instead of before they see patients (block funding), or only when they follow recipe care (QBPs)?
- Ask patients what Canadian healthcare could learn from other industries, other countries?
- Ask patients whether they think healthcare should be as good as pet care or prisoner care?
What do you think? Baby Boomers have reshaped everything they’ve ever come up against. How will they reshape healthcare?
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