Health Problems
The prevalence of chronic disabilities among the elderly has declined in recent years, and most elderly people rate their health as reasonably good and free of major disabilities. Still, older people obviously suffer from more health problems than younger people, and the number and intrusiveness of health difficulties often increase with advancing age.
In 2003, the elderly accounted for about one quarter of all U.S. health-care expenditures. In 2004, over half of all non-institutionalized persons over sixty-five reported having at least some problems with hypertension, whereas about a third reported suffering from such ailments as arthritis, heart disease, and hearing loss.
One out of five elderly have had incidences of some type of cancer. In America, 10 to 15 percent of all reported new HIV infections occur among people over the age of fifty. This amounted to 78,000 people in 2005. Age related chronic health conditions, such as osteoporosis, create complications for the treatment of the elderly living with AIDS and accelerate the progression from HIV to AIDS (UNAIDS 2002). In 2004, nearly three quarters of non- institutionalized people over age sixty-five considered their health to be "good" or "good to excellent," and more than two out of three people age eighty-five or older reported the same.
It is not surprising that the percentage of people needing help with daily activities increases with age. Whereas only about one in ten people between the ages of sixty-five and seventy-five report needing daily assistance, the figure rises to one in five for people between seventy-five and seventy-nine and to one in three for people between eighty and eighty-four.
Half of all people over age eighty-five require assistance. Paradoxically, there is some evidence that the fastest- growing group of elderly, the oldest old (those eighty-five and older), tend to enjoy relative robustness, which partially accounts for their having reached their advanced age. This is possibly one of the reasons that health-care costs for a person who dies at ninety are about a third of those for a person who dies at seventy.
Unlike many other Americans, the elderly are fortunate in having access to public health insurance and therefore medical services. The United States, however, stands virtually alone among the industrialized nations in failing to provide complete health care of its most senior citizens.
When the elderly become physically unable to care for themselves, they may end up in nursing homes or assisted living facilities. Only about one out of every twenty people over age sixty-five is in a nursing home, a figure that rises to about one out of every five among people over age eighty-five. Medicaid, the government program that provides health insurance for the poor, covers long- term supervision and nursing costs, although only when most of one’s assets (except for one's home) have been used up.
Nursing homes have long had a reputation for austerity and loneliness. In fact, however, the quality of most has improved in recent years because federal programs such as help cover the cost of care and because of federal quality regulations. Further, long-term care offers a diverse range of options to older adults, ranging from apartments with partial nursing care and meals to units that provide round-the-clock medical assistance. Many also offer a wide array of cultural, social, and recreational programs for their residents. Still, living for many years in a nursing home was cited as a concern about growing old by over half of respondents, according to a recent national survey.
