(ARA) - What a difference a few decades make. Today's seniors are living longer, healthier lives than their parents did.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the average life expectancy in America is now 77.9 years - the highest it has ever been. Back in the 1940s when today's retirees were born it was 62.9. When their parents were born around the turn of the century it was more like 50.
So what has changed? The introduction of new drugs and vaccines, improvements in living standards and advances in health care. There were 50,000 fewer U.S. deaths in 2004, the biggest single-year drop in mortality since the 1930s, with the largest reductions due to improvements in treating heart disease, cancer and stroke.
"We're doing more than ever before to help keep seniors healthy, including cancer screenings, managing multiple medications and providing counseling on ways to stay healthy, like how to quit smoking," says Dr. J. Edward Hill of the American Medical Association.
But seniors are in danger of losing wide-spread access to physicians because of drastic Medicare cuts. The Medicare Trustees Report, released earlier this year, projects that payments to Medicare physicians will be cut about 40 percent over the next nine years. At the same time, the government projects practice cost increases of about 20 percent.
"Doctors are stuck between a rock and a hard place as they try to do more to improve the quality of medical care for seniors while being penalized with lower Medicare payments," notes Dr. Hill.
If Medicare payments don't keep up with increasing practice costs, doctors will be forced to make difficult decisions. Nearly half of the physicians polled in a recent survey say that next year's cut will force them to either decrease or stop seeing new Medicare patients. This is frightening news for the seniors who rely on Medicare now for health care, and for the baby boomers who will begin to age into Medicare in just five years.
"Seniors want to enjoy their retirement, and they're turning to physicians for advice on how to stay healthy," says Dr. Hill. "I love my senior patients, but it will be difficult for doctors to care for the nation's growing elderly population if the government keeps cutting Medicare payments."
For optimal health, Dr. Hill of the AMA advises seniors to:
* Keep a list of all your current medications, including prescriptions, over-the-counter and herbals to bring to medical appointments.
* An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure: Take advantage of preventive health screenings for vision, hearing and early screenings for diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
* Exercise regularly to stay fit and reduce arthritis pain and disability.
* Create a "living will" so your health care wishes are known if you can't speak for yourself.
* Talk to your doctor about safe driving skills.
* Quit smoking.
* Get an annual flu shot.
* Tell your members of Congress to preserve seniors' access to physicians by stopping Medicare physician payment cuts.
For more information on what's being done, log on to www.patientsactionnetwork.org or call your member of Congress at (888) 434-6200.
