New report finds that sick care in the USA will become increasingly expensive and ineffective as the population ages – the US government needs to act quickly.
A new case study published by the Aging Analytics Agency and Targeting Metabesity 2019 identifies key Longevity deficits linked to health and wealth shortfalls in the United States. The study, released to coincide with the beginning of this week’s Targeting Metabesity 2019 conference, examines the links between metabesity, Longevity and the USA’s current health shortfalls, including low health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE).
‘Metabesity’ is a term used to encompass the constellation of interconnected diseases with metabolic roots.Starting today in Washington, DC, Targeting Metabesity 2019 is focused on the prevention of noncommunicable diseases and the treatment of age-related health dysfunctions to extend health-adjusted life expectancy. The conference will address the constellation of major chronic diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, cancer, and the aging process – widely considered to be a “slow motion disaster.”
The report also looks at the large gap between HALE and life expectancy in the USA (despite the country’s high per-capita healthcare expenditures) and provides policy recommendations to address the health vs wealth deficit.
“Therapies for extending health-span are on the near-term horizon and are well within reach provided there is a receptive regulatory environment to manage them,” said Dr Michael Zemel, CSO, NuSirt Biopharma. “Longevity extension, on the other hand, may seem difficult to impossible, but in reality this ‘impossibility’ will just take a little longer in a supportive environment for clinical development.”
The USA holds the greatest share of the multi-trillion dollar global Longevity economy and the majority share of global Longevity industry companies and players. It also has one of the highest rates of healthcare expenditure.
According to the report, the USA has all the resources necessary to become a global leader in Longevity, preventive medicine and precision health, but lacks national prioritization by its federal government, and a strategy to unite the activities of its relevant industry ecosystems to work in synergy.
“The drugs and treatments that have resulted from America’s commitment to medical science have benefited – and saved – countless lives,” said Breanna Deutsch, former Press Secretary and Communications Director for the US Congress. “In order to continue leading the world in biomedical innovation, America’s policymakers and regulators must recognize the importance of longevity research and work to clear the federal roadblocks preventing this new era of medicine from reaching the public.”
The report suggests that finding synergies between Longevity research, P4 medicine and Artificial Intelligence has the potential to enable rapid and widespread policy and infrastructural reforms for US healthcare to quickly boost national Longevity, but only with sufficient government commitment.
“As was the case at the cusp of the moon shot or the human genome project, it seems increasingly a question of when, not if, emerging science will enable us to slow or even reverse human aging,” said Thomas Seoh, President and CEO, Kinexum. “What we need now is socioeconomic and policy alignment to accelerate the translation of this emerging science into material, accessible gains in public health. Preventing chronic diseases and extending healthspan constitute some of the most leveraged opportunities in healthcare in coming decades.”
