The United States and its workforce is increasingly aging, obese, and suffering from chronic disease. In the U.S. alone, in a trend that started in 2011 and will continue through 2030, 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day. In 2018, the CDC reported a full 24% of the workforce is 55 or older, and that number is growing. The CDC found arthritis and hypertension affect, respectively, 47% and 44% of workers over 55. Today’s top causes of death include heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic lower respiratory diseases, and diabetes — and all appear far more prevalently among today’s workforce than in generations past because of both age and a more sedentary lifestyle.
This overwhelming trend is rightly of great concern to today’s employers. That’s not simply because of concerns about productivity and absenteeism. It’s perhaps of most immense concern because of the tremendous, ongoing rise in healthcare costs. In the last 50 years, on a per capita basis, health spending has increased sharply, as measured in constant 2020 dollars, from $1,875 per person in 1970 to $12,531 in 2020. Despite various health reforms, costs have more than tripled in the last decade alone.
