American Health Care Trends_ Old, Fat and Lazy The recent AMA Executive Summary "Health in the United States: Health Care Trends" contains both somewhat hope and a lot of gloom.

Posted by Morrow Young on February 20th, 2021

Population Trends By 2050 the segment from the population over 65 will double from right now to 83.7 million. This means that the prevalence of chronic illness will rise dramatically. Since 1990, smoking has decreased from 29.5% to 18.1% from the adult population. Probably as a result, stroke has declined 34%, coronary disease 27%, and cancer 17%. This sounds good but... Fat and Sluggish Since 1990, the obesity rate in older adults (looked as BMI over 30) has risen from 12% to 29.6%. During the same time diabetes increased from 4.4% to 10% coming from all adults. Not old adults, all adults. The CDC predicts that by 2050, thirty percent of adults may have diabetes. As a result, obesity is the leading reason for strokes. Physical inactivity is a major reason. Only 21% of adults receive the US Department of Health and Human Services recommended 150 minutes of exercise weekly. My observation is that most get no exercise. Many employers now offer wellness programs giving financial rewards for healthy behaviors. This could be a major help the best direction. Of bandar qq , punitive actions denying health care insurance on the very overweight or uncontrolled diabetics may be coming, particularly if the government leaves the medical insurance business to non-public companies. Is There a Doctor inside the Zip Code? The AMA reports that primary care doctors are closing their practices and either retiring early or moving to non-clinical areas like insurance, quality management, the pharmaceutical industry and even medical informatics. Since the demand for health services will increase dramatically, an ever-increasing area of primary care will probably be provided by PAs and Nurse Practitioners. I expect they could have increasing independence. This is not necessarily a bad thing, several caregivers are fantastic and provide compassionate and comprehensive care. A possible byproduct with this trend could possibly be an increase in demand for referrals and subspecialty care, for example sending diabetics to endocrinologists and COPD patients to lung specialists. Take Responsibility or Someone Else Will A dystopian future looms the location where the expense of medical care is greater than our resources can manage. In this rather terrifying situation, someone will have to be denied services, probably either the powerless or people that will not adopt mandatory health guidelines. It hasn't arrive at that yet. We have time to make recommended adjustments to diet and activity. Remember, who would have predicted everyone would give up smoking?

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Morrow Young

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Morrow Young
Joined: February 20th, 2021
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