“When Medicare was founded, it paid for health care after something went wrong. But we can’t afford to simply pay bills after people get sick anymore. Today, the best way to make Medicare sustainable is by helping seniors take steps to stay well and to prevent complications of diseases,” says Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., director of Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services (CMS).
The Benefits of Preventive Care
Consider the benefits of a falls prevention program, such as those practiced at select communities built and managed by Erickson. “Spending perhaps $30 or $40 to prevent a fall is far less expensive than spending $30,000 on a hip replacement, but right now most Medicare patients don’t have that option,” says Matt Narrett, M.D., Erickson’s chief medical officer.
"Most importantly, there are non-financial incentives for falls prevention programs. We can repair hip fractures from osteoporosis, but 50 percent of people never fully return to normal functioning—and 25 percent die within a year. That is why Erickson HealthSM is steadfastly committed to wellness and preventive care,” says Narrett.
Start Controlling Your Own Health
White House Conference on Aging speakers insist that upcoming baby boomers will not put too much strain on America’s health care system because they are more into fitness than their predecessors. Butler is not as upbeat. “Boomers are often obese, with all the resultant health problems, such as diabetes and heart disease,” he says—and Brandwin agrees.
“My generation is smoking less, taking better charge of their diet, but the numbers for high blood pressure and high cholesterol are still very bad,” Brandwin points out.
“I think part of it is the patient’s responsibility—they do not take their medicine or take their doctor’s advice—and part is physicians’, with them not taking the time as we discussed,” Brandwin adds.
Walk Your Way to Health
One of the conference’s repeated recommendations was for people to take control of their own health, with simply starting to walk more as one example. Walking does not have to mean a planned 30-minute program. It includes back and forth to your desk, around the house, in the supermarket, etc.
Buy a pedometer and wear it everywhere while clipped to your waist. The recommendation is 5,000 steps daily for general fitness, to 10,000 steps daily for weight loss, but don’t be intimidated. See how many steps you log in each day for a week, then look at your routine and see ways you fit in more. Two options: take stairs instead of the elevator, and get up to change channels instead of using the remote.
Geriatric Care: Doomed Without Activism?
“How can we maintain vigorous and healthy older people if we do not have experts trained to understand the special clinical differences in treating older people? Just as we have pediatrics, we need geriatrics as a specialty—and that includes not just doctors, but also nurses, allied health professionals (such as physical therapists), and social workers,” says Butler.
That need will only expand as baby boomers age—the first wave of 78 million American boomers joined the “senior” category this January 1st.
Unfortunately, Butler notes that while the conference was voting to expand funding for enticing and training geriatric experts, the House of Representatives had voted to cut all $31.5 million dollars of these funds (out of a budget of $2.3 trillion) for 2006.
That’s what makes the Erickson HealthSM system so unusual. It contains experts in numerous areas of health care with specific expertise in caring for the older population. Even better, these people work as a team both within their own community and across the network. “If an alert goes out about a drug, we can call our colleagues and ask how they are handling the situation. It’s invaluable to have people who are working with the same age group,” says Brandwin.
If you don’t have that kind of system or experience in place, why not ask for it? Remember, 2006 is a year of important mid-term elections, so now is the time for older people to start making an issue about quality geriatric health care to all their representatives—city, state, and federal. Unless you fight for it, the future of health care not just for you but for your loved ones coming later lies in serious doubt.