Today, Medicare covers 48 million people and that number is expected to balloon to more than 61 million by 2020. As would be expected, Medicare beneficiaries are more likely than the rest of the population to have multiple ailments. Four out of five seniors have at least one chronic disease. Yet even as older Americans get sicker, they are living longer. By 2020, it is expected that 6.6 million Americans will be 85 or older, up from 5.5 million in 2010. A recent TrendWatch report from the American Hospital Association offered a snapshot of the health of Medicare beneficiaries.
Source: American Hospital Association, Trendwatch, December 2012
