The baby boomers generation reaches 80 years and rearranges aging. In the US, 15 million people are over that age, with the number expected to double in two decades. According to Joseph Coughlin of MIT AgeLab, Boomers «reinvent old age», claiming better health care and quality of life. Their expenses shift from travel to health services, with 15.4% of the expenses directed to medical care. Their purchasing power creates new professions and products, and requires innovations such as telemedicine and treatments against dementia.
Analyticalally:
Having reached the age of 80, the generation of Boomers who shaped much of the past, is going to change the future of aging for itself and for those who follow.
Against what they will claim, such as better healthcare and housing, cures for dementia, new professions and products will appear creating a new consumer audience with cost potential.
The number of Americans aged 80 and over is close to 15 million
The Boomers in the Old Age
«Reinvent the early age», commented on Wall Street Journey by Joseph Coughlin, director of AgeLab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Unlike patient «Silent Generation», Boomers had high expectations and used their economic and political influence to carry them out.
That people today are getting so old is a relatively new phenomenon. In the past, people retired at 60 and lived a few years longer.
Today, the number of Americans aged 80 and over is close to 15 million. And their number is expected to double within two decades, says William Frey, a journalist at Brookings Institution. While hoping to live even longer: those who are 80 years old and over, on average, aspire to live to 93, according to the Pew Research Center.
Travel, vacation and leisure account for less than 5% of the costs for the richest couples over 80 years of age
How expenditure will change
Overall, these older baby boomers are better educated and richer than previous generations – although there are huge inequalities. More than other age groups, Boomers join the polls, which gives them voice in what is happening with public healthcare programs, such as Medicare, as well as their purchasing power.
The generations of Boomers helped develop a consumer-based economy and will continue to do so, but not in the same way or level. Personal expenses are largely reduced after 80, between the rich and the poor, with fewer spending on travel and vacations and more on health care, according to Michael Hurd, economist and senior principal researcher in Rand Corp.
For example, healthcare accounts for about 15.4% of household average spending for couples 80 years of age or older, compared to 11% for households 65-69 years of age.
Meanwhile, travel, vacation, and recreation account for less than 5% of the costs for the richest couples over 80 years of age. This corresponds to about half of what the richest couples spend in the mid to late 60s. The tourism industry will respond, offering slower paced excursions focusing on education and culture, to keep the elderly on the road.
Quality of life
With so many costs for healthcare, older boomers – and their adult children – expect better results and a less complex and fragmented system.
They will request more diagnosis and treatment at home, telemedicine, portable devices, support for caregivers and innovations to prevent dementia.
«Quality of life, not life, will become the motto of Boomers as they cross 70 and reach 80», points out Ken Dychtwald, CEO of Age Wave, a California-based consulting company specializing in aging-related issues.
He notes that the US, which spends more per capita on health care from other countries, is ranked 72nd in life. This term refers to the number of years people can expect to live in good health.
Source OT
