title: Journalistic elder abuse: it's time to get rid of fictions, get down to facts.
abstract: The public debate on health care, as reported and carried on in the popular media, is frequently framed in terms of age. The assumption is that old age can be equated with high health care costs, and that increases in health care costs are determined solely by the growing numbers of older people in our society. A variety of studies suggest, however, that high-tech, high-cost care is not inevitably associated with advancing age. The public debate on health care must stop confusing demographic issues with health care cost issues, and focus instead on the real and complex problems of rising health care costs.
authors.affiliation: Center for Aging and Health, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC.
authors.forename: G D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Cohen
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003363:Cost Control; D017048:Health Care Costs; D015276:Health Care Rationing; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D016901:Intergenerational Relations; D009524:Newspapers as Topic; D011287:Prejudice; D011379:Prognosis; D011639:Public Opinion; D014481:United States