Literature Review Of The Baby Boomers

Literature Review

Between 1946 and 1964, the United States experienced a drastic increase in birth rate and these individuals became known as the baby boomers (Smith, 2007, pg. 2). Now, the baby boomers are turning 50 and each day 10,000 baby boomers are becoming eligible for Medicare (Barr, 2014b, p. 1). The staggering numbers of eligibility is beginning to impose a financial burden on Medicare, and healthcare providers, policy makers and others are trying to come up with new models of care and concepts to improve quality, cut healthcare costs, and withstand the onslaught of acute and chronic illnesses (Barr, 2014b, p.1). The baby boomers have a desire for wellness that promotes “youthful and healthy aging”, a thirst for knowledge and information

3). Many elderly people rely on family members to take care of them but this is becoming less common (Siegal & Rimsky, 2015, p.2). In addition, many boomers have no idea how much money they should have saved to support their intended lifestyle after their retirement and medical expenses are not always taken into account (Barr, 2014a, p. 2). Boomers who may need long-term nursing care may not have the financial means when the time comes, and this can create a threat to Medicaid programs (Barr, 2014a, p. 2). Furthermore, Edlund, Lufkin, & Franklin (2003), states that “Medicare has been the traditional healthcare insurance for the elderly” but was never designed to pay for long-term care and custodial services (n.p). It has become evident that the national approach to long-term care, which relies on unpaid family caregivers and Medicaid coverage for nursing home care is not enough to satiate the needs of the baby boomers (Siegal & Rimsky, 2015, p. 3). Many older adults prefer home and community-based care to nursing home care, and while the average cost is lower in a home setting than in a nursing home, the majority of Medicaid money is spent on long-term services in nursing home care (Siegal &

Among one of the various topics that was brought up in class was the healthcare topic on baby boomers. I am currently a health science major with the option of pre-clinical. I want to become a nurse with the possibility of earning my masters and becoming a Nurse Practitioner (N.P). As a Nurse Practitioner and with the generation of baby boomers becoming a healthcare trend in addition to Medicare, I chose this healthcare topic to further my education and research on. These two topics are intertwined as Medicare is for people over the age of 65. I did my research by using CSUEB’s school library’s database Academic Search Premier to look up information regarding baby boomers, health care, nursing homes, and Medicare. The interviewee I chose is a Nurse Practitioner who has worked in the air force as an LVN, in a hospital setting at San Leandro Hospital and Alta Bates Summit hospital, and now owns and runs her own nursing home business for 8 years. Family Nurse Practitioner Olivia Rusu has experienced first-hand the difficulties of managing a nursing home business and the difficulties of providing services and keeping up with the changing and developing medical advances and technologies of healthcare. Olivia Rusu is the mother of a close friend of mine who is a nursing student at Samuel Merritt University. I emailed Mrs. Rusu informing her of my class and assignment, and upon