 Kimberlyn McGrail  GET UPDATES FROM Kimberlyn McGrail  Boomers
Won't Bankrupt The Health-Care System, But Over-Diagnosis Just
Might  Posted: 08/30/2012 12:02 pm  You've heard it before: the
boomers are aging and jeopardizing our health-care system by the
sheer number of them swanning into their golden years. Sounds
right -- except it isn't true.  Let's check the evidence: the
older you are, the more likely you are to use health-care
services. This is a fact, but it does not necessarily follow
that the coming bulge of boomers will bankrupt the health care
system. Study after study in Canada over the last 30 years shows
that aging is an issue, but it exerts only a small and
predictable pressure on health care spending (less than one per
cent annually from 2010 to 2036).  More recent research shows
that increases in utilization -- how many and how often
Canadians use health services -- are twice as important as aging
in increasing costs year by year. In other words, while
population aging does increase costs, t