September 15th, 2003
Longevity Doesn't Break Government Medical Services
A lot of articles on the cost of increasing longevity to government medical programs have been published in past weeks, like this one from the Telegraph. Studies note that increased healthy longevity doesn't add to the cost of government health services. In other words, politicians might now look more favorably on healthy life extension research because it won't increase medicare (or NHS in the UK) costs. This is a typical modern governmental view, unfortunately. The idea that the system should serve the people, rather than vice versa, seems to be quaint and outmoded these days.