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Aging and health care utilization: New evidence on old fallacies

Author

Listed:
  • Barer, Morris L.
  • Evans, Robert G.
  • Hertzman, Clyde
  • Lomas, Jonathan

Abstract

The proportion of the population in the older age groups will increase dramatically over the next four decades. Furthermore, current per capita rates of hospital and medical care utilization rise sharply with age beyond the age of about 55. However, demographic trends alone do not imply health care cost increases in excess of what is supportable by normal economic growth. A 'cost crisis' will only occur if per capita rates of utilization among the elderly increase faster than for the general population. In this paper we present some descriptive data from published sources suggesting that this has been the case over the recent past in one Canadian province. The implications for the policy debate over the effects of an aging population are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Barer, Morris L. & Evans, Robert G. & Hertzman, Clyde & Lomas, Jonathan, 1987. "Aging and health care utilization: New evidence on old fallacies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 24(10), pages 851-862, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:24:y:1987:i:10:p:851-862
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Fredrik Gregersen, 2014. "The impact of ageing on health care expenditures: a study of steepening," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 15(9), pages 979-989, December.
    2. Byongho Tchoe & Sang-Ho Nam, 2010. "Aging Risk and Health Care Expenditure in Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 7(8), pages 1-20, August.
    3. Yu, Tiffany Hui-Kuang & Wang, David Han-Min & Wu, Kuo-Lun, 2015. "Reexamining the red herring effect on healthcare expenditures," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 783-787.
    4. Herbert C. Northcott, 1994. "Public Perceptions of the Population Aging "Crisis"," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 20(1), pages 66-77, March.
    5. Anna Kollerup & Jakob Kjellberg & Rikke Ibsen, 2022. "Ageing and health care expenditures: the importance of age per se, steepening of the individual-level expenditure curve, and the role of morbidity," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 23(7), pages 1121-1149, September.
    6. Josephine Varney & Nigel Bean & Mark Mackay, 2019. "The self-regulating nature of occupancy in ICUs: stochastic homoeostasis," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 615-634, December.
    7. Ethel Yiranbon & Zhou Lulin & Henry Asante Antwi & Emmanuel Opoku Marfo & Kwame Oduro Amoako & Daniel Kwame Offin, 2014. "Evaluating the Consequences of Ageing Population on Healthcare Cost to Ghana using Inflation-Adjusted Expenditure and Demographic Factors," International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, vol. 4(2), pages 282-290, April.
    8. Alex Zhavoronkov & Maria Litovchenko, 2013. "Biomedical Progress Rates as New Parameters for Models of Economic Growth in Developed Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-17, November.
    9. Bevan, Gwyn & Brown, Lawrence D., 2014. "The political economy of rationing health care in England and the US: the ‘accidental logics’ of political settlements," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 57129, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Lilly, Meredith B. & Laporte, Audrey & Coyte, Peter C., 2010. "Do they care too much to work? The influence of caregiving intensity on the labour force participation of unpaid caregivers in Canada," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 895-903, December.
    11. Bing Hu & Daiyan Peng & Yuedong Zhang & Jiyu Yu, 2020. "Rural Population Aging and the Hospital Utilization in Cities: The Rise of Medical Tourism in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-17, July.
    12. Rudolf Sivák & Pavol Ochotnický & Ľuboš Kuchta, 2014. "Fiškálna udržateľnosť systému zdravotníctva SR [Fiscal Sustainability of the National Health Care Systém in the Slovak Republic]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2014(4), pages 480-499.

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