Health Care System for the Elderly

What is the issue?

India has a favorable demographic dividend but soon would be offset by rapid ageing of people at the top end of the scale.

What could offset the gains of demographic dividend?

• Demographic dividend (DD) occurs when the proportion of working people in the total population is high.
• This indicates that more people have the potential to be productive and contribute to growth of the economy.
• But this will eventually lead to approximately 20% of Indians being elderly by 2050.
• This would be a dramatic jump from the current 6% level.
• This is a cause of concern for policymakers as India already has the world’s second largest population of the elderly i.e people above 60 years of age
• This would increase demand for healthcare services and accommodation and there by generating enormous socio-economic pressures.

What is the need to re-gear the health care system?

• According to the National Sample Survey Organisation’s 2004 survey, nearly 3% of elderly were living alone, 9.3% were living with their spouses and 35.6%.
• However many among the younger generation are increasing nleft with less time, energy and willingness to care for their parents, or simply emigrate abroad and are unable to do so.
• Therefore  elders suffer abandonment by family, destitution, inability to access health care, low levels of institutional support, loneliness and depression.
• Also as the size of the elderly population expands, there will be a shift in the disease patterns from communicable to non-communicable.

What should be done?

• Even though the private sector is making available a variety of retirement communities across the country in addition to innovations in healthcare delivery, still the elderly poor very much depend on the government to come up with the resources and institutions to support their needs.
• Several mature economies have created multiple models for elder care, such as universal health insurance, networks of nursing homes etc.,
• India should also adopt such a system.
• The advocacy and information campaigns shoul be to redirect social attitudes toward ageing.
• The health-care system should be regeared toward ‘preventive, promotive, curative and rehabilitative aspects of health’.

Source: The Hindu