The UK’s Ageing Population is Responsible for Unsustainable Costs in Health and Social Care

The UK’s Ageing Population is Responsible for Unsustainable Costs in Health and Social Care1
THE UK’S AGEING POPULATION IS RESPONSIBLE FOR UNSUSTAINABLE COSTS
IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
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The UK’s Ageing Population is Responsible for Unsustainable Costs in Health and Social Care2
Introduction
The population of the United Kingdom has been rising significantly in the recent
past. According to the Government Office on Statistics UK (2017), about one in seven
people in the UK is likely to be above sixty-five years and above. While it is true that the
increase in lifespan in any given country is an indicator of economic stability and
improved quality of life, ageing has a significant adverse impact on healthcare costs. A
higher number of ageing population is a burden to the economic growth and social care,
considering that many people in this population has retired from employment. However,
lack of employment alone is not the burden. The major concern is when one realizes
that ageing population is prone to some of the end of life diseases such as stroke,
cancer, and diabetes. These diseases are terminal and consume a lot of resources from
the population that is not working. The NHS reported in 2016 that two thirds of the
national healthcare budget goes to the department dealing with people above sixty-five
years. This paper argues that the UK’s ageing population is responsible for
unsustainable costs in health and social care.
The Direct Impact of Ageing Population on Healthcare and Social Care Delivery
It is undisputed fact that as people age, they become dependent and attracts
direct impact on health and social service delivery. Ageing population poses serious
threat to the cost of healthcare delivery and social care, considering that people above
the age of sixty-five years have already retired and are hardly adding economic value to
the nation. It is also at the age of sixty-five years and above that the prevalence of
chronic diseases is reported to increase, creating an adverse impact on social services
available. A study by Nicol (2017) found that an old man costs the NHS system six
times more compared to a young man. Scholars have also linked lifestile diseases that
are prevalent in ageing population to inactivity. Young people are likely to stay
physically fit and active, while the old develop complications as consequences of
physical inactivity and alcohol and drug abuse when they were still young. Evidently, it
cannot be denied that the ageing population has created these problems and is not
readily available to tackle them.
The ageing population requires age-specific health and social care, which is
expensive to produce in industries and even to acquire from vendors. The major

The UK’s Ageing Population is Responsible for Unsustainable Costs in Health and Social Care3
setback to costs associated with old age is that sometimes treatment of chronic
diseases leads to other diseases that adversely affect social and health care delivery. In
the process of responding to challenges that face service delivery and care for the
ageing population, society and community at large is forced to set up nursing homes
and palliative care units. These facilities consume resources and funds that could have
been spent on other programs if the old people could have invested in
According to Townsend (2016), the government in the UK has managed to
develop and create a stable healthcare system that treats most of diseases that once
cut lives short. However, as many people live longer, there is a direct economic and
social pressure on the available healthcare and social care resources and services.
Long lifespan implies more funds for treatment of diseases that accompany age and
also more funds for housing. It becomes stressful when one realizes that most of old
people have not made savings that could help in making them less dependents (Storey,
2018). For the government to ensure constant supply of resources and care for this
population, it has to extend the costs to taxpayers in the earning generation. These
costs could have been lower if the ageing population could have stayed physically
active and made sufficient savings to spend on their healthcare.
The UK has a culture of pushing the old population to spend time in palliative
care or nursing homes. According to Thompson (2015), the cost of healthcare could be
low if the old spent time at home with their families. However, this has become
practically impossible to implement considering that many people that could take care of
the old are already in active employment and businesses. This implies that the old have
to spend time in in-patient programs and care. The cost of inpatient care is high to
provide and maintain both in terms of manpower and financing. Investors are also
aware of the potential of investing in potential that old age creates; hence they have
decided to increase the cost of services with the goal of taking advantage of the
vulnerable.
Carreras, Ibern, and Innoriza (2018) carried out a study in 2017 to investigate the
cost of healthcare expenditure at the end of life. The researchers found that health care
expenditure at the end of life increases as the function of length of life. Very few people,
if any, would be willing to terminate the lives of their loved ones during the terminal