Santiago de Chile, January 17, 2012. Although the progressive aging of the Chilean population constitutes a worrying situation, do not take the measures needed to address this challenge in the coming years, as is the training of doctors and nurses specializing in gerontology.
Currently, Chile has been described by various international organizations as a country with advanced moderate aging. This is a society that experienced a rapid decline of fertility between 1970 and 2000, which has a high longevity, and that future will present a growth rate of the elderly population higher than that of other groups age.
With equal certainty, various agencies, both domestic and foreign, have noticed that our aging population has a direct impact on social protection systems and their evolution in terms of supply, sustainability and funding.
In the field of health, aging of population change affects the demand for new services and treatments, resulting in increased costs and expenses.
According to figures given by the Superintendent of Health, currently estimated GenF20 Plus expenditure on health of older adults reached the figure of 497 billion pesos, equivalent to 17.3% of total health spending in the country and at 1, 1% of gross domestic product (GDP).
However, this cost will increase progressively in the coming years, as the proportion of older adults. If we consider (as optimistic) that GDP will grow an average of 4% over the next ten years, then spending on health of seniors next year will reach 1.4% of GDP, up from 2015 to 1 year , 7% and reach the year 2020 to represent 2.1% of GDP.
The growth rate of the elderly population is higher than that of other age groups
This is certainly a worrying situation: increasing elderly population and assure them the costs of health care. Meanwhile, we see they do not take the measures needed to address this challenge in the coming years, as is the training of doctors and nurses specializing in gerontology. There are not enough scholarships for specialization and have not reached the proper incentives for young professionals interested in this area of health.
The challenges are enormous not only for the public health sector but also for the private sector, will require new infrastructure to meet this growing demand of attention, preferential beds for older adults in hospitals and clinics. But also, that these costs continue to rise astronomically what is required now is to put the emphasis on prevention of chronic diseases such as hypertension, asthma and diabetes mellitus, which allow seniors to have a better quality of life. Investing in recreational areas for people to have space to develop physical activity, healthy living education, have lower levels of obesity, will maintain a healthy population and address this national challenge.
In short, the aging population puts considerable pressure on funding and barring government intervention, in terms of guaranteeing the right to health, it is likely that this demographic shift, which in itself is an achievement of humanity, becomes a problem that ended up affecting the basic unit of social reproduction: the family.