PART ONE OF THREE: HEATH CARE AT THE HEART OF IT.
According to the Canadian press, an unprecedented dynamic is unfolding in Canada and for that matter across the Western world, and, like it or not, will affect everything from health care , stock markets, housing and elder care just to mention a few.
Think of this dynamic as a population pyramid. Typically the pyramid’s base consisted of more people at the base and fewer at the top. Turn the pyramid upside down, and it’s not rocket science to see that fewer people are supporting more people.
According to a recent Stats Canada report, the number of Canadians aged 65 and over are greater than the number of Canadian children age 14 and under for the first time in history.
Demographer David Foot, said that these numbers are representative of a trend that is likely to persist for a long time.
Foote said the most serious implications of this shift will affect the health care system, but won’t be felt for some time.
According to Mr. Ostroff of the Huffington Post, this is just the tip of the iceberg. He states that “seniors will make up 24% of the population by 2024 and 25 % by 2036, at which point seniors will account for 62% of all health care costs versus 14% today.
According to Dr. Chris Simpson, the outgoing president of the Canadian Medical Association, which represent 80,000 doctors, “it costs $1000 a day in a hospital bed, or $150 dollars per day for a long-term facility, or fifty bucks a day for home care.”
According to Dr. Simpson, “there has to be a balance between those who generate revenue and those who are consuming to the expenditure line of government”
The solution can be found in the crisis and thus the opportunity to fix a system that has 13 political jurisdictions that work independently of each other.
We spend 220 billion dollars a year on health care but nobody’s in charge, there’s no plan, there’s no accountability to speak of.
Some of the solutions lie in medically assisted end of life when it becomes legal, and shifting the national thinking to home care and providing meaningful tax breaks for those who do so.
I believe the private sector has to come along for the ride, and show leadership in the area of a better parental care strategy by providing their employees with the financial support to take care of their ailing parents. We do it for the birth of our children, so why not for the dying?
At the end of the day, we need a National Seniors Strategy and as Dr. Chris Simpson stated “we have to stop just talking about money and who is going to pay for what. We’ve got to talk about what it is we want to accomplish, we have to be held accountable for those outcomes and we have to do it together.”
Hopefully the new government will take a stand and see the forest for the trees. Therein lies the opportunity to have a progressive health system that will ensure quality health care exists when Gen-Exers and millennials reach retirement age.
Join me on my next blog as I talk about how the aging demographics will affect the economy and how you can benefit from it.
Live Well. Invest Intelligently.
14 November, 2015 Financial Planning