Monday, March 24, 2014

Japanese aging

The number of elderly persons relative to the number of persons of working age in Japan is a ratio that gets a lot of attention because Japan is "the world’s fastest aging society."

"Japan’s shrinking labor force means there are fewer taxpayers to pay for state-funded care of dependent seniors. A quarter of Japanese are older than 65 years now and by 2060 about 40 percent will fall into that demographic . . " (As a comparison, "Seniors made up 13.3 percent of the U.S. population in 2011 and will account for at least 20 percent of the population by 2060 . . ")

This means entitlements will have to decrease as there are fewer people making money, and more people needing support.

This article at Bloomberg.com explains that the government is starting to change its reimbursement policies for feeding tubes for the elderly.

No comments:

Post a Comment