The Issues of Aging and Health as the Biggest of Them - Essay Example

HEALTH AND AGING Introduction This paper aims to describe the issues of aging and how health is the biggest of them. It talks about the importance of precautionary healthcare, options available near the end of life and issues regarding those. In the end it gives a review of a few countries that are dealing with the pressing problem of aging. Aging Aging refers to gradual physical and psychological changes in humans with time. This change increases the likelihood of death. A person who is 65 years or older is typically labeled as aged. Likewise ageing population is when the number of aged people is of a great proportion of the total population. This happens when the size of old retired population widens while the working population shrinks at the same time. Therefore, this puts more burden socially and as well as economically. Almost all countries mainly developed, like Australia, Japan and The United States of America, that have managed to increase their life expectancy rate by effective public health strategies are either presently suffering from this problem or anticipating future concerns over this issue. This change in the population structure has recently became a source for concern and now all the countries are doing whatever they can to deal with this problem as smoothly as possible. Increasing in the size of old population means that the demand for healthcare is increasing. What exactly the problem is discussed in the following passage. Healthcare According to the Population Division of the United Nations, in 2006 the number of old persons (60 years or older) in the world passed 700 million. And it is estimated that by 2050, 2 billion older persons are expected to be living. According to this estimation, in a span of 50 years, the number of old people in the world will triple in number. The Population Division also gave the increasing rate of the aged people. According to them, the world aged population is increasing at a rate of 2.6 percent per year. When compared with the 1.1 percent increase per year in the total population, this increase of 2.6 is noticeably faster. (UN, 2007) The statistics show that this rapid increase in the number of aged people in our society puts a greater pressure on the governments and other health care organizations to provide for these people. As a person becomes older, naturally he will become relatively unhealthy and would definitely be in need of some sort of medical assistance. In America, the health care costs for the older population have risen dramatically. If steps are not taken right now, then, in future, the standard of living and life expectancy rate will fall greatly. One problem with giving old people health care is that they usually suffer from chronic diseases which are the result of an unhealthy life style. The cost of curing these diseases is very high. Therefore, if these chronic diseases can be avoided, this will not only benefit the person but also the people who were supposed to provide for them. Now the question remains how can these diseases be avoided One way is to maintain a healthy lifestyle in terms of regular exercising, avoiding tobacco and alcohol etc. This includes making people aware of the importance of this. People need to be health literate but the statistics show that older people who need to be health literate are not. The statistics show that 39% of the people of age 75 or above have below basic health literacy. 23% of the people of ages 65 to 74 and 13% of people ages 50 to 64 have below basic health literacy. Therefore making them aware is very necessary. (NIH, 2008) Another way how this can be avoided and reduced is regular medical check ups. These measures would either prevent the people from suffering from these chronic diseases or would help in detecting the diseases when it is not too late. Most countries have not yet realized the importance of this. Only a negligible amount of funds are spent on prevention. The challenge for the society is to give people more healthy years rather than just years to live. Death is inevitable to avert, but the way one dies can be changed by using all these measures. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has just deigned an OECD project that aims to develop a framework that will prevent chronic disease for economic benefit. It also takes in account prevention programs. (OECD, 2007) After all this discussion, it can be concluded that the main issue of aging population is that in future, there would not be many resources to provide healthcare for them. Therefore, in order to be ready for the future, one needs to be prepared. One way to do this is by Social Security Social Security Social Security is basically a federal program of benefits given to people in time of need. Since this paper discusses aging, the time of need will be when one retires or when one becomes disabled. We will essentially be concentrating on Health Insurance for Aged and Disabled (Medicare). However, these benefits are not free. They have to be indirectly paid for through taxes. These are very important for all countries these days as they are facing the problem of aged population. Social security is making their futures secure. The money that is put aside comes in useful for unforeseen events. This is a practical approach to life. And lastly, social security has now gained great importance as in this quick paced age, families are breaking up and there will be no one to look after one grows old. One issue regarding social security is that social security is usually put under the banner of welfare but the bitter reality is that money is cut from whatever these people earn. And most of the years, the money they put out for health care is not even used up. What if a person set aside some amount for social security every month and dies at the age of 62 He would not enjoy and social security benefits, hence, making it unfair. More is taken out of what people earn than how much they actually use up. So why should one pay for social security when there is a chance that he will not be using up the money that he is putting aside for future use Some also argue that social security is like a regressive tax system. Poor pay a higher proportion of their income than what the rich pay. However, such a dramatic increase in the aged, retired population is putting a pressure on the social security support systems. When, of course, the people who require these benefits are rapidly increasing, the system will have to find a way to provide for these people. One way is to increase the tax rates, cut down benefits, late retirement age, borrowing on large scale and etc. If social security is going to be made available to the general public, then it must be changed and revised. (Gavrilov & Heuveline, 2007) Euthanasia What is Euthanasia To be straight forward, euthanasia is physician-assisted suicide. More simply, it is an act of intentional killing of someone who is fatally ill. The person can be killed by either injecting some sort of substance that would take his/her life or he can be killed by not providing him with the necessary care (food and water). There are two basic types of euthanasia. Voluntary Euthanasia is when the person killed has given the permission and he intentionally took his life with the help of physicians while the second type is 'Non-Voluntary Euthanasia'. This is when a person has not given consent but still his life is taken. This is illegal in most countries. Netherlands, Australia and Belgium are the only countries where euthanasia is absolutely legal. But why is it illegal in other countries Euthanasia is a very controversial topic. Some argue that this is a way that relieves the person who is fatally ill from extreme pain. If he is kept alive, he will keep on suffering and since he is going to die one day, why not just do it now when he has not suffered much They also say that it is useless to waste medical resources on a person who is going to die eventually. So euthanasia helps in freeing us these resources. While on the other hand, some argue that euthanasia is another form of murder. They say that no one has the right to take someone's life even if the life is being taken on the persons will. Death usually is an unexpected incident and someone who is fatally ill still has chances to get better. And if not that, several years of his life are taken away from him by using this method of 'relieving pain'. According to them, murder can never be justified. They also say that euthanasia will eventually become Non-voluntary. (www.Euthanasia.com ) According to a The Harris poll, which is a poll carried out in the United States of America, In 2007, physician assisted suicide is supported by 39 percent and opposed by 31 percent. One in five (21%) neither supports nor opposes (Harris Interactive, 2007) One discussion that people put forward is that it is sensible and practical to exercise euthanasia on old people when they face challenges at the end of their life. They say that it is easier taking life than taking care of old people. So the solution to an aging population is to draw on euthanasia. According to them, medical assistance should not be given to old people who are terminally-ill. A person who has a chance of living should be helped instead. Countries Suffering from Aging More developed countries are more likely to be suffering from aging than the less developed. Why Because the more developed countries have managed to improve their health care facilities. This has enabled the people to live longer. The birth rates of these countries have also decreased. Hence, the population structure consists of more aged people. People are getting retired and less people are there for the working population. This is how speed of aging is faster in more developed than in less developed. Over one fifth of the total population in the more developed countries are 60 years or older, and by 2050, nearly one third of the total population would be put in the same age group. On the other hand, only 8 percent of the population in less developed are of 60 years or older and by 2050, this age group will account for one fifth of the total population. This means that in 50 years, less developed countries will be on the same stage of population aging that the more developed are facing currently. (UN, 2007) The same source also gives us median ages of a few selected countries. According to the Population Division of United Nations at present, the median age for the world stands at 28 years. Uganda has the youngest population with a median age of 15 years, and the oldest is Japan, with a median age of 43 years. UN projects that in the coming 40 years, the median age of the world would increase by another 10 years to reach 38 by 2050. (UN, 2007) These statistics again show that what nations have feared for so long is indeed coming true. The expected median age is increasing at a fast rate and the resources that nations need to tackle this are not available to them as yet. Conclusion We have seen statistics from different sources which show that the world population is on the verge of aging. This issue is very pressing as this is putting constraint on social, health and economic development. How is it putting constraints on social development This increase in the world population means that there is an increase in the demand for health care and governments need to provide for the retired in form of increased social security. This is a social impact that this structural change is will have. It will take time for nations to realize how serious this matter can get. The development of the field of medicine is so fast-paced that now it has become so necessary for nations to improve their health care. Far sighted nations have already started on working on affordable, high quality health care for their people. They need to realize that preventive measures have to be taken. Once these diseases are prevented from, expensive treatments would not be necessary. This will enable the people to live a healthy live and hopefully avoid all the chronic diseases that they could have been suffering from if they were not looked after. People argue that euthanasia is the answer to this problem but this is very unethical. There is a trade off between human rights and social and economic development when we talk about euthanasia. What we need to understand is that presenting all these issues and discussing them is another story and implementing them is another. A lot of changes will have to be made. For instance the social security system will have to be changed completely otherwise the future is not so great. WORK CITED 1. Fewer Doctors Support Assisted Suicide Poll Says. Retrieved on April 6, 2008 from The Pro-Life Infonet. 2. UN (2007). Population. Retrieved April 6, 2008, from United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. 3. Harris Interactive (2007). Views on Social Issues and Their Potential Impact on the Presidential Election. Retrieved on April 6, 2008, from Harris Interactive. 4. Euthanasia Facts. April 6, 2008. from, Euthanasia.com. 5. Gavrilov , Leonid A. and Heuveline, Patrick. (2007). Aging of Population. Retrieved on April 6, 2008 from 6. NIH/National Institute on Aging (2008). Americans Living Longer, Enjoying Greater Health And Prosperity, But Important Disparities Remain. ScienceDaily (2008) Retrieved on 6 April 2008 from 7. OECD (2007). The Economics of Prevention. Retrieved on 6 April 2008 from Read More