The Baby Boomer generation is about to become the Golden Boomer generation. For the most part these Americans are active and healthy as they enter their golden years, but they may be hard pressed to find healthcare providers and health professionals that are able to meet the demands of the large numbers that are becoming eligible for Medicare and becoming a growing burden on an already over-taxed healthcare system.

To top it off, now they have to worry about ObamaCare and a questionable economy that has put them all at risk of being unable to enjoy their retirement to its fullest. Add to that the increase in life expectancy and the number of relatively older American citizens will continue to multiply. And while the numbers of the aged continue to rise, the number of geriatricians, those who take care of the elderly, is declining, which may possibly result in a healthcare crisis for our aging Baby Boomers that will be intolerable.

How in the world can Boomers expect to deal with these growing problems when the policy makers have waited far too long to address a failing healthcare system, only to ram it down America’s throats in a desperate effort to keep a campaign promise? Did anyone hear anything in regard to ObamaCare about how the needs of an aging America will be met? We obviously need to at least train the healthcare workforce in the needs of an aging populace, but how do you make that happen when so many doctors will suffer the negative repercussions of health care reform? How do you keep doctors from leaving and how do you attract new doctors, when those who have depended upon the Medicare system, and have therefore catered to the elderly, are faced with a decline in Medicare reimbursement? Instead of an increase in geriatricians, Boomers can expect to see a marked decrease in the number of specialists in this area, which is already mightily stressed and understaffed.

Unfortunately, with the advent of the new health care bill, the future is unpredictable when it comes to medical care for the Golden Boomers. They can only hope that with the coming elections their representatives in congress will hear their pleas and will understand that as this remarkably substantial number of Americans age and as their health fails that the economy of this United States may fail right along with the Boomers. The number of Boomers is not insignificant, nor have their numbers ever been so. They have shaped the world and the decline of the U.S. population of Boomers, if that is allowed to happen, will also be felt worldwide.