No one's really talking about it yet, but the Boomer Generation is forcing massive changes on the healthcare industry. Here's what we think is happening:
Trend One: Out of Patience and Time
As Boomer women take on the care of senior parents, stress, lack of time and unwillingness to put up with mistakes will force healthcare professionals to change how they handle patients. (Long waits at the doctor's office, I don't think so!) Doctors who treat illness rather then promote wellness will have less credibility with the Boomers and their younger generations.
Trend Two: Doctors are not in charge of healthcare anymore.
No, it's not the politicians or the pharmaceutical companies either. Today's seniors still believe that their doctors and their pharmacists know more about their individual health then they do. Boomers, educated, and raised to question authority, know that the only one who really knows or cares about their health is themselves. Boomers find anything they want to know about any drug, or even any surgical procedure on the Internet. They read warning labels and know what questions to ask better then any generation before them.
Trend Three: Who says you have to look or feel old?
For years doctors have told people that "you're in pretty good shape for your age". Boomers do not want to be defined by age. They've created the health & nutrition industry; made organic foods popular; are buying millions of dollars of age reducing, age defying, plastic surgery, rejuvenating products for inside and outside the body. Even Boomers' aging pets benefit from new antioxidant loaded pet foods to lengthen the life of their beloved companions. Attitude, activity, flexibility, fitness, nutrition are what determines health not age. Boomers know it, and buy it. Generation X is hot on the trail of new breakthroughs against the effects of time. Never before has the prospect of living an active, productive life into the 100's been in the realm of possibility.
