Page 39 - BusinessWest April 28, 2021
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 Business of Aging
Wave Dynamics
An Aging Baby Boomer Population Will Test the Healthcare System
Since they started entering the world just after World War II, the Baby Boomers have influenced society in general, and the business community in particular, in all kinds of ways. The same is true when it comes to the healthcare sector, especially as the oldest members of this huge and proud generation turn 75. The impact of such a large and aging group can be seen in everything from hearing practices to the many facets of the long-term care system. And is some ways, COVID has provided a preview of what it is to come.
A
phase she attributed to her mother, but which she uses often as well: “No one gets out of life alive.”
She used those words to convey the thought that, while this Baby Boom generation may in many ways be healthier than those that preceded it — fewer smokers and more exercisers, for example — and it has enjoyed access to bet- ter healthcare and innumerable advances in treatment, from artificial joints to improved cancer care, its members will eventually see their health decline, and they will need increasing amounts of care. And many already do.
By George O’Brien
s she talked about the massive Baby Boom generation, how its oldest members turn 75 this year, and about how almost all the Boomers could now be classified as senior
citizens, Dr. Maura Brennan summoned a
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