In 2040, there will be 80 million Americans aged 65 or older as the United States becomes the gray-haired member of the global community.

Amy Ai, a University of Michigan integrative medicine researcher and delegate to next month's White House conference on aging, believes the healthy aging Baby Boomer-driven shift will extend the average age of the U.S. workforce and this requires the health care industry to move rapidly toward a wellness-oriented system.

The current health care system is basically a disease management industry focused on a very few; those severely and chronically ill people.   Whereas a wellness-oriented system would provide better management of chronic conditions and reduce the increasing health care cost burden on employers and the government.

Source: Dave Gershman, Ann Arbor News, November 20, 2005