The cost of caring for aging Americans will add 25% to the nation’s health care bill by 2030 unless people act now to stay healthy, according to the US Centers for Disease Control. Currently, 80 % of Americans aged 65 and older have at least one chronic disease that could lead to premature death and disability, CDC researchers said. “Given the demographics….. the economic impact on healthcare will be enormous,” said Dr. Richard Murray, a vice president at Merck & Co.Inc.,whose foundation funded the study.

Prevention is the Key

If people adopt healthier lifestyles, they will not develop the expensive, chronic diseases that raise health costs sharply, such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

“We are going to see an increase in health care costs, but the goal has to be to restrain the rate of increase. Prevention is the key to that,” said Bill Benson a health care benefits and policy analyst who advised he CDC on the report.

The report noted that three behaviors- smoking, poor diet, and physical inactivity- caused almost 35% of US deaths in 2000. Those three behaviors often lead to the development of the nation’s leading chronic diseases, heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

“We have the opportunity for prevention,” Merck’s Murray said. “We need to be serious about it.”

-drhinkes