The elderly population in America is growing in size owing to declining death rates, increasing life expectancy, and the aging of the baby boomers. Although the prevalence of chronic illness and disability increases with age, successful aging in the elderly population is widespread, and the elderly are generally healthy. Indeed, the prevalence of disability among the elderly is declining, and expenditures for their care are increasingly concentrated at the end of life rather than during extra years of relatively healthy life. Nevertheless, health care costs will undoubtedly increase during the next 30 years as a result of the baby boomers entering late life. The economic and social impact of future growing health care expenditures for the elderly will be significant. Important policy issues will include the continued viability of the Medicare and Social Security programs, future needs for long-term care, improvement of the health status of the elderly, technological advances, the need for a geriatric work force, and development of viable strategies to pay for escalating medical care costs.

中文翻译：

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美国寿命延长的经济影响。

由于死亡率的下降，预期寿命的延长以及婴儿潮一代的衰老，美国的老年人口正在增长。尽管慢性疾病和残疾的患病率随着年龄的增长而增加，但老年人口中成功的老龄化现象普遍存在，并且老年人通常是健康的。的确，老年人中残疾人的患病率正在下降，用于照料的支出越来越多地集中在生命的尽头，而不是在相对健康的额外岁月中。然而，由于婴儿潮一代进入晚年生活，医疗费用无疑将在未来30年内增加。未来老年人医疗保健支出不断增长的经济和社会影响将是巨大的。