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Declining Health Care for Baby Boomers?

By: Robin Thibault, KARK 4 NEWS
Updated: November 18, 2008
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healthToo many patients and not enough health care workers trained to deal with them. That could be the case in a few years when baby boomers start flooding doctor's offices, hospitals and nursing homes with a variety of age-related illnesses. The Institute of Medicine estimates 35,000 geriatricians will be needed in the year 2030 to care for 78 million baby boomers. Right now, there are only 7,000 and that number's declining. Attracting people to work with seniors isn't easy. Direct care workers average under $10 dollars an hour and need little training in some states. "Individuals who are nurse's aides or home health aides, working to take care of the elderly, are required to have fewer hours of training than a dog groomer or cross-walk aides." The Institute of Medicine says Congress needs to take a look at what Medicare pays --because low reimbursements discourages doctors from managing chronic conditions.

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