The Economic Burden of Chronic Disease on The United States

October 2007 – The Milken Institute has compiled one of the most comprehensive descriptions of the true nature of the cost of the chronic diseases of aging to the U.S. economy. With figures from 2003, the institute shows a yearly total cost of 1.3 trillion dollars in direct and indirect costs stating “reasonable improvements in preventing and managing chronic disease could reduce future economic costs of disease sharply, by 27% ($1.1 trillion) in 2023.”

Why Population Aging Matters – A Global Perspective

March 2007 – Produced by the National Institute on Aging of the U.S. National Insitutes of Health, the Forward of this important work reads: “…the significance of population aging and its global implications have yet to be fully appreciated. There is a need to raise awareness …[of] the importance of rigorous cross-national scientific research and policy dialogue that will help us address the challenges and opportunities of an aging world…finding ways to reduce aging-related disability should become national and global priorities.”

Boomer Bulge: Dealing with the Stress of Demographic Change on Government Budgets in Canada

January 2009 – Healthcare overwhelms other savings in an e-brief from the C.D. Howe Institute which details how the increase in elderly and their care over the coming decades, and decrease in younger people, represent an implicit liability of 1.5 trillion dollars for the Canadian economy.

The Graying of the Middle Kingdom – The Demographics and Economics of Retirement Policy in China

April 2004 – The synopsis of this paper by Richard Jackson and Neil Howe of The Center for Strategic & International Studies reads “By 2040 there will be 400 million Chinese elders—which is more than the total current population of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the UK combined….China must take decisive steps to prepare for its coming age wave or face a crisis of immense proportions later in the century.”

A Graying World – The Dangers of Global Aging

Fall 2001 – Harvard International Review – Peter G. Peterson, author of the seminal work on global aging, “A Gray Dawn”, states in this that “Not only are health costs rising faster than GDP, but the elderly consume three to five times more health-care services per capita than younger people…and it is precisely the population of the oldest of the old that will be growing most quickly.” He also points out that compounding the problem will be the increase in medical technologies which although beneficial, are increasingly expensive. He quotes William Schwartz, a noted health technology expert who says few governments have a clue of what’s about to hit them; “Everything that’s happened up to now in medicine is a prelude,” he reports. “What’s really ahead is stunning. It’s going to be very expensive.”