How older adults are changing america

Want to see what marketplace clout looks like? Thanks to the demands of an informed, health-conscious population of older Americans, it seems like nearly every purveyor of goods or services

in the U.S. is also in the health business.  At the local level, what restaurant, boutique, grocery, dry cleaner or lawn care service doesn’t cater in some way to the health and safety needs

of its customers?   And it’s even more true at the national level, where big names such as Amazon, Walmart and Target are making major investments in health services and products. Older

Americans spend heavily on health care, as everyone knows. In fact, it’s the only broad spending category that keeps rising with people’s ages, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In 2021, boomer households spent an ­average of $6,600 per year on health care, and older households spent $7,050; in contrast, millennials spent at least a third less. “More than previous

generations, older people today want to be as active and healthy as possible — and the retail industry is picking up on that,” says Rachel Bonsignore, vice president at the consumer research

firm GfK Consumer Life. Among retailers’ giant investments in health care: In February, Amazon dropped nearly $4 billion to purchase the primary care chain One Medical, and it rolled out

prescription drug and health care membership programs.  Discount retailer Dollar General is piloting mobile health care units that roll up in front of stores for on-demand doctor

appointments. This year, Walmart announced it would double the number of its Walmart Health in-store clinics in 2024.  Drugstore chain CVS is also moving beyond the pharmacy counter. At the

1,100 MinuteClinics inside CVS stores, health care practitioners trained in “age-friendly” care have joined more than 3,000 hospitals, doctors’ offices and other sites in a growing movement

that focuses on older adults’ medical needs and how best to treat them, according to Terry Fulmer, president of the John A. Hartford Foundation. The foundation, along with the Institute for

Healthcare Improvement, has been working on an initiative to help older adults stay mobile, avoid risky medications, get care that matters to them, and receive help for dementia, depression

and other mental health issues.  And it’s moving beyond doctors’ offices and into the places where older adults increasingly turn for health care. CVS will spend $10.6 billion on Oak Street

Health to expand the retailer’s reach in underserved communities. (AARP has a relationship with Oak Street Health.) But the ultimate in health care convenience comes in home care that

­rivals the excellence of hospitals such as NYU Langone. It’s a trend that is picking up steam. Since last September, 200 mostly older residents of Long Island, New York, have received

hospital-level treatment for pneumonia, asthma flare-ups and other medical problems in the comfort of their own home.  “We take everything from the brick-and-mortar hospital — except the bed

— and bring it home,” says Jonathan Kelly, an osteopathic physician and the medical director of NYU Langone Hospital-Long ​Island’s Home Hospital Program. “That includes nurses, physical

therapists, supplemental oxygen, intravenous antibiotics, intensive wound care, meals planned by a dietitian if you need them, and more.”  Nearly 300 hospital-at-home programs are running in

the U.S., and by 2030, an estimated 1 in 6 American hospitals will offer them, Kelly notes.   The scale of the home health care movement is huge. The consulting firm McKinsey & Company

estimates $265 billion in care for Medicare beneficiaries will be delivered at home by 2025. That’s clout. — Lisa Lee Freeman and Sari Harrar