Health Care for the Elderly: How Much? Who Will Pay for It?

The tendency of health care expenditures on the elderly to grow about 4 percent per annum more rapidly than the Gross Domestic Product could plunge the nation into a severe economic and social crisis within two decades. This paper describes recent growth in age-sex-specific health care utilization by the elderly and discusses the important role of technology in that growth. It also explores the potential for the elderly to pay for additional care through increases in work and savings. Efforts to Medicare embedded in broader policy initiatives that slow the rate of growth of health care expenditures and/or increase the income of the elderly.