Good news ‘o the day
by digby
Americans are living longer—which means we’re all going to be stuck with ever-increasing medical bills for the growing ranks of the elderly, right? Though many analysts think so, a new study says that may not be the case. A new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research concludes that disease rates are being “compressed” into the last year or two before death. That means we’re living longer, but also living healthier in our advanced years up until the last year of life. If that’s true, then the aging of the baby boomers may not be the Medicare budget-buster that many fear.
And it’s good news for humans as well as budgets. One thing I’ve learned in the past few years of dealing with aging parents and starting to look more closely at the abyss of my so-called golden years myself, the whole process is completely different if you can manage to stay healthy up until the very end. People who are lucky enough to have that can have an amazingly rich and rewarding final few decades of life, filled with wisdom and freedom and good times. It’s nice to know that more of us are getting to have that experience.
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