Report: Health picture grim for aging boomers

December 9, 2005

Half of the oldest baby boomers have highblood pressure and two of every five are obese, making them vulnerableto severe health consequences as they grow older and guaranteeingsociety will face a substantial bill for their care, the federalgovernment said Thursday.

And though some indicators of health are improving, with lifeexpectancy rising and deaths from certain cancers reduced, those trendsmay reverse as the oldest boomers pass into old age, the governmentwarned.

The predictions of Americans’ health come from a 550-pagestatistical abstract, “Health, United States, 2005,” released Thursdayby the National Center for Health Statistics, an arm of the Centers forDisease Control and Prevention.

The report examines statistical measures of health from smokingduring pregnancy to deaths from workplace accidents and plots themagainst trends in insurance, doctor visits and health care spending.But it pays particular attention to the current and future health ofAmericans who are between 55 and 64 — a group that encompasses the lastfew members of the World War II generation and the leading edge of thepostwar baby boom.

“It’s a very large and fast-growing group whose situation now givesus a preview of what is to come,” said Amy Bernstein, the studydirector. “They are starting to develop major chronic disease healthproblems at the same time that employer-sponsored health care isretracting and the cost of care is increasing.”