Finding the Health Care That You Need Is Increasingly Challenging in Today’s World

A sunday morning editorial printed in the Omaha World Herald serves as an accurate indicator of the challenging health future that many communities will be facing by the year 2020. In this opinion piece two writers, one a founder of a in home care service for the aging, the other a department chair for a local university gerontology department, both warn of the major challenges that communities across the city, the state, the nation, and the world will be facing.
In Omaha, the authors point out, by the year 2020 25% of the current population will be over the age of 60. Nationwide, by the year 2030, 60% 10 Baby Boomers will be managing a chronic condition. Is it any wonder that the agencies that deal with the nation’s health professions are beating a drum to get more people to enter this field?

Health Clinic Care Needs Continue to Grow as the Nation’s Population Ages
From the need for more physical therapy programs to the search to find doctors who will work in rural areas, the nation’s, and the world’s, future health care challenges can be quite alarming. As a result of more people having access to affordable health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, it should come as no surprise that the role that clinic care will play is increasingly important. Whether it is on the Midwestern plains of Omaha or the ocean side cities in California or Washington, there is a need for an increased number of quality health care providers to help an aging nation deal with a number of everyday health situations, as well as an increasing number of chronic health conditions.

In just one specific statistic, for instance, one out of 10 Baby Boomers indicate that their physical activity is limited to a few days a month. Finding the resources to provide the necessary occupational and physical therapy resources remains important. As another example, as many as 65% of individuals older than 60 years of age experience dizziness or loss of balance, often on a daily basis. Finding both the source and the solution to this condition is a challenge if patients do not have access to health insurance and if there are not enough doctors to provide these services.