Cohen G D
Center for Aging and Health, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC.
Gerontologist. 1994 Jun;34(3):399-401. doi: 10.1093/geront/34.3.399.
The public debate on health care, as reported and carried on in the popular media, is frequently framed in terms of age. The assumption is that old age can be equated with high health care costs, and that increases in health care costs are determined solely by the growing numbers of older people in our society. A variety of studies suggest, however, that high-tech, high-cost care is not inevitably associated with advancing age. The public debate on health care must stop confusing demographic issues with health care cost issues, and focus instead on the real and complex problems of rising health care costs.
正如大众媒体所报道和讨论的那样，关于医疗保健的公众辩论常常围绕年龄展开。人们假定老年等同于高额医疗保健费用，而且医疗保健费用的增加完全是由我们社会中老年人数量的增长所决定的。然而，各种研究表明，高科技、高成本的医疗并非必然与年龄增长相关。关于医疗保健的公众辩论必须停止将人口问题与医疗保健成本问题混为一谈，而应转而关注医疗保健成本上升这一真实而复杂的问题。
