Chronic Disease And Aging

Keeping Americans healthy will a face a major long-term challenge as our population ages and the amount of chronic care they require will increase. The increased incidence of chronic disease in the younger segments of the population caused by unhealthy lifestyles will exacerbate the problem. Transitioning to a single-payer will ameliorate the problem by facilitating early detection and treatment in our lower income cohorts by eliminating copays. It will also free up financial and human resources now consumed by our very inefficient Insurance-based system. The combination will delay the onset of the chronic care challenge but not eradicate it.

There are only two additional paths to deal with this problem; promoting healthier lifestyles and developing more effective treatments; primarily pharmaceuticals and gene therapies. Although the Centers for Disease Control and a number of other government and other agencies are attempting to address the lifestyles issues progress is very slow; a more comprehensive and concerted effort will be required. Similarly, efforts by the government to manipulate pharmaceutical costs, although well intentioned, will almost certainly slow down the development of more effective therapies.