For those interested, I went and crunched the numbers. Statistics are from 2014, from [1] and [2], so a little outdated: 11.4% of medical spending on ages 0-18

For those interested, I went and crunched the numbers. Statistics are from 2014, from [1] and [2], so a little outdated: 11.4% of medical spending on ages 0-18 (23.11% of population) 21.0% of medical spending on ages 19-44 (36.23% of population) 33.2% of medical spending on ages 45-64 (26.17% of population) 34.4% of medical spending on ages 65+ (14.5% of population) So there is definitely more spend in older age, which makes sense, but the majority of spend is in populations I wouldn't consider old (<65). Additionally, what we consider "old" is really a reflection of average lifespan, and if we had healthier habits as a whole, maybe "old" would be older than "old" is today. By definition, old is when the body does start to break down at a fast rate, like you say, so I suppose it is tautologically true. However, I don't think it means we have to accept high healthcare costs related to that. [1]: https://www.cms.gov/research-statistics-data-and-systems/statistics-trends-and-reports/nationalhealthexpenddata/nhe-fact-sheet https://www.cms.gov/research-statistics-data-and-systems/sta... [2]: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2010s-national-detail.html https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2...