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The High Cost of Aging Poorly (which we all eventually do)

Aging is expensive. Even if the humantarian aspects of aging don’t make you weep, the increasing costs of a globally aging population cannot be ignored. We will see health care systems stretched and broken as the baby-boomers reach their not-so-golden years. One of my uncles who is reaching his sixties stated once when pondering the fate of himself and his peers.. “They’ll be stacking us up like cordwood in the hallways of the hospitals”. This is likely an exaggeration, but certainly the resource rationing we see in medical instiutions today will only grow more prevalent in the future. The numbers of dependent elderly are set to skyrocket leaving their children with the assurance of shouldering an increasing burden of their care should they be unable to purchase dignity in their final years themselves.

The situation even today is grave and the outlook bleaker still. The Alliance for Aging Research has summarized the current costs of looking after the dependent elderly. Note that these costs are for institutionalized adults, not those who are being cared for by their family members and other care-givers. The figures should actually be much higher.

  • Loss of Independence
    		•  26 Billion
  • Visual Impairment
    		•  40 Billion
  • Dementia
    		•  100 Billion
  • Mobility Impairment
    		•  24 Billion
  • Incontinence
    		•  28 Billion

    For a total of 218 Billion Dollars... PER YEAR! and this amount is set to increase by 600% over the next couple of decades. The cost is mind boggling. Is there anything better you think that might be done with this vast amount of capital currently earmarked to give our elderly mothers and fathers some quality of life and dignity? Maybe we could put it towards a collapsing Social Security system? Perhaps some global economic development or alternative forms of energy for when the oil runs out? From any perspective, ethical, moral, or practical, applying the same technology and ingenuity which has allowed generations of children to survive to suffer from old age, to the process of aging, makes perfect sense. Unique efforts like The Methuselah Mouse Prize deserve recognition and support for the groundbreaking vision which will encourage research that will lead to the discoveries that will help prevent the costs of the diseases of old age from overwhelming our medical systems.