WSJ: 80 is the new 60 (Social Security and Medicare are Really in Trouble)

 by Devon Herrick

Recently I read about how people aged faster and looked older for their age back when I was young. It is not just because everyone looked old when we were kids. There are a variety of reasons for this, including better health, and a lower disease burden. And it was not just the poor who aged faster and whose life ended early, although wealth is generally associated with health. The half millennia stretching between  1066 and 1588, only five British kings lived beyond age 60. Granted, some of these died violently. In 1547 King Henry VIII died at age 55 of natural causes. Obesity and Type II diabetes are thought to have played a role, as did a serious jousting accident about 10 years earlier. Henry’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon died of cancer at age 51, while another wife (Anne of Cleves) is thought to have died of cancer at age 41 or 42. Oddly enough, Anne outlived all of Henry’s other five wives.

Scientists have studied biological aging and whether people aged faster and looked older in the past. 

A study published in 2018 examined the changes in biological aging (from markers such as blood pressure and lung function) changed in relation to chronological age, between 1988 and 2010. They found that even in this short time frame, there were significant differences in aging, with more recent generations being biologically “younger” than those who came before them.

“Over the past 20 years, the biological age of the U.S. population seems to have decreased for males and females across the age range,” the team wrote in the study. 

The oldest Baby Boomers turn 80 this year. The Wall Street Journal looked at the oldest Baby Boomers and how they are changing old age. They are not going gently into that good night. From WSJ: 

Having reached octogenarian levels, a generation that shaped much of our past is shaping the future of aging for themselves and those who follow. They want better healthcare and housing, cures for dementia and a say in when to die. New professions and products will appear. Their massive spending will shift and innovators will follow.

“They are reinventing old age,” says Joseph Coughlin, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab. Unlike the patient Silent Generation, boomers had high expectations and used their sheer numbers as well as financial and political clout to make them happen, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Reaching age 80 in relatively good health is a recent phenomenon. Life expectancy in 1935 when Social Security was created was only around 62. The retirement age was set at age 65 even though many men would never live to collect benefits. The conventional wisdom at the time was that while nearly half of men would not reach age 65, most of those who did would not survive long after. Around 1940 just over half of men who made it to adulthood could expect to survive long enough to reach retirement age. More from WSJ:

Today, the number of Americans who are turning 80 or older is close to 15 million. Their ranks are expected to double within two decades, says William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. They hope to live even longer: Those 80 and older, on average, aspire to live to 93, according to the Pew Research Center.

Baby Boomers have impacted society throughout every step of their lives. Schools had to be built, housing stock expanded and hospitals enlarged. The same will be true of Boomers in old age. Personal spending declines after age 80. People travel less and more discretionary income is spent on health care (15% of household income). A huge cohort of seniors aged 80+ will transform the health care system in ways not seen before. WSJ predicts: 

With so much spending on healthcare, older boomers—and their adult kids—expect better results and a less confusing, complicated and fragmented system. They’ll ask for more in-home diagnosis and treatment, telemedicine, wearable devices, support for caregivers and breakthroughs to prevent dementia and cognitive decline. Healthcare systems and industries will respond. Only 10% of medical schools routinely require rotations in geriatrics. More will follow. Humanoid robots will enter eldercare.

Also, euthanasia and assisted suicide will likely enter the public discourse to a greater degree. Something not specifically mentioned is inpatient hospital care in the home, where a hospital patient is monitored in their own home. While some wealthier seniors may decide to join senior communities, many will prefer to age in place in their own home. This is likely to expand home remodeling for aging in place, with wider doorways, elevators, bath and shower remodels, and meal delivery. Real estate firm, Redfin, already finds that Boomers aren’t downsizing their spacious homes to live in a crackerbox.

WSJ: The Boomers Are Turning 80. Now They Want to Change Old Age

https://www.goodmanhealthblog.org/wsj-80-is-the-new-60-social-security-and-medicare-are-really-in-trouble/