| Sumario: | The implications of health care reform for older adults are discussed. Although the aging of the population contributes to the growth of health care spending, the key reason for such growth is the high cost of health care goods and services. The link between health care costs and the crisis facing Medicare with regard to the increasing cost of entitlements makes it imperative that advocates of health care reform and defenders of social insurance cooperate. Progressing health care reform will require the support of older adults, who tend to be much less supportive of increased government spending on health care. Many older adults view social security and Medicare as providing their relative independence and economic security, and as a result, they will probably oppose anything that appears to threaten these programs. Thus, to succeed, the health care reform movement needs to attract the support of older people.
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