A key challenge for Medicare’s annual wellness visits: Spreading the benefits to underserved seniors

There has been a growing gap in healthy aging between individuals with lower and higher socioeconomic status in the US. The disparity in life expectancy between rich and poor has grown by eight to 10 years over the past several decades, according to a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report. More recently, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the top 5 percent of income earners gained almost three years in life expectancy since 2001, while the bottom 5 percent made no real gains. Older adults’ health status improvements have also been concentrated among white, well-educated and higher-income individuals, while racial/ethnic minority, less educated, and lower-income individuals have had declining health.

So what is the policy solution to these widening disparities in health and longevity for US seniors? In addition, how can we promote such a solution’s broad uptake? This blog post explores potential solutions to growing health inequities among seniors in the US, such as a new model for annual wellness visits that incorporates screening for the social determinants of health.