HCS490
April 29,2013
Demographics
As the population of today’s society continues to live long past retirement age, the need and cost for health care including research, development, and services will be essential. The demand for these critical components within a lifetime that has increased significantly in the last century is important to the health and well-being of all people.
The Aging Population
Health care issues and challenges that affect the aging population include chronic disease, long-term care, physical disabilities, and behavioral determinants, to name just a few. These challenges will continue to increase as baby-boomers reach retirement at very fast rate. This summary will discuss the health …show more content…
The cost of prescription medications needed to treat these diseases is also on the rise. More important, as the population continues to age the demand for the medications to treat these illnesses will rise too. Although many within the aging population have planned for retirement, the added expense of the rising costs of medication can devastate a predetermined retirement budget. Numerous aging people will face the choice of paying for their medications or buying food. Physicians have become more lenient about prescribing generic medications in an effort to make them affordable to patients and pharmacies are even providing discounts through rewards programs. Several pharmacies in Michigan now offer free antibiotics and $4 30-day prescriptions.
Wellness programs can help deter the cost of health care for the aging population. Wellness programs aid patients in how to make healthy choices by teaching nutritional eating habits, exercise routines, providing smoking cessation instruction, and educating about the benefits of vaccinations and screenings such as mammograms and colonoscopies. These healthy lifestyle changes may diminish an individual’s chance of contracting chronic disease. Wellness programs are targeted to teach people to make healthy decisions in an effort to prevent chronic disease during the aging …show more content…
The Administration for Community Living aids aging individuals by promoting strategies for people to live in their communities, providing leadership and support, collaborating, innovating, and solving the challenges that aging populations encounter (About ACL, 2013).
The increasingly negative challenges of the aging population will continue to impact society. Federal, state, and local governments can help by educating the public about chronic disease, wellness programs, nursing faculty and staff shortages, and planning for increases to health care costs. Aging individuals should have the opportunity live comfortably without the worries of medical professional staff shortages, chronic disease, and increasing health care