Editor's note: This is the fourth story in a seven-part series about aging in Athens and the concerns of soon-to-retire baby boomers.
The costs of health care are skyrocketing, and experts say increases will pose a notable challenge as the large baby boomer generation reaches retirement.
The boomers are going to be a different population because they know what they want - they are knowledgeable consumers of health care
said Joetta Lane, director of the Buckeye Hills Area Agency on Aging, which serves Athens County and seven others in Southern Ohio. They're going to be very demanding.
Because of medical advancements and greater attention on health care issues, boomers are entering retirement with more health care knowledge, expecting to live longer with more active lifestyles, Lane said.
The larger population, combined with longer life expectancy, undoubtedly will strain the current health care system and increase prices, but the rate of increase is hard to determine ahead of time because so many factors play into the cost of health care, she said.
Though people are paying a smaller percentage of out-of-pocket health care expenses, the amount they pay has increased greatly in the past two decades, as has the amount spent nationwide for health care expenditures, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
People paid only 17 percent of their personal health care costs in 2000, compared to 27.1 percent in 1980, but the amount paid for personal care increased from $214.6 billion to $1,136.1 billion in those 20 years.
The per capita cost of personal health care increased from $931 in 1980 to $3,955 in 2000, according to data from the centers. Reports also show that the costs of health care nationwide - including personal health care expenditures, private health insurance, services, supplies and government costs - totaled $1,426.4 billion in 2000, up from $245.8 billion in 1980.
The costs of prescription drugs have been especially salient in recent years for the poverty-ridden areas of southern Ohio, said Steve Proctor, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Aging.
Because the drugs have been so expensive people have been forced to make the choice between having the drug and other life necessities he said.
Prescription drug expenditures nationwide totaled $12 billion in 1980, but skyrocketed to $121.5 billion in 2000, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The use of medications commonly associated with middle and older-age adults, such as blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes medicines, also has the potential to bump up future costs.
More people are being treated with pharmaceuticals than are being treated in any other way
said Ohio AARP spokeswoman Kathy Keller. In the past year, brand name prescription prices have increased by 6 percent, she said.
Another problem especially evident in Southeast Ohio is that families are becoming more geographically separated as communities have difficulty keeping young people from moving elsewhere, Lane said. The result is that the tradition of children taking care of their elderly, ailing parents is disappearing. Instead, many baby boomers will be forced to look to more costly, long-term home care or nursing facilities.
In Southeastern Ohio, elderly residents can receive about the same level of care, whether they choose nursing facilities or long-term home care, but the costs are not as similar, Lane said. Her agency estimates the cost of nursing home care at about $55,000 annually. On the other hand, long-term home care costs about $24,000, she said.
Tracy Galway, a spokeswoman for Athens County Job and Family Services, said nearly three-fourths of her agency's budget goes to Medicaid costs for nursing home care. And despite other government aid, such as recent additions to Medicare that provide for prescription drug coverage, the rising costs of health care will continue to be a major concern, especially for poor, elderly residents in Athens, Galway said.
Before
they couldn't make ends meet
and now it's getting even worse
she said.
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Kantele Franko
