Aging Populations

Abstract Personal aging is associated with illness and increased medical expenditures, yet population aging is not associated with the level or rate of increase in national health expenditures once other factors are controlled for, thus illustrating a profound difference between micro and macro effects. Changes in spending by age group show that the “cost effects of aging” are determined by policy as much as by biology. However, allocations of total expenditures are greatly affected by age and time to death. By 2050 half of all patient care expenditures are likely to be for persons who are over age 65. Budgetary limits and this skewed allocation have restricted the rates of growth in per capita spending for elderly persons relative to those under age 65 since 1990.