Health care's changing face: the demographics of the 21st century

What will U.S. health care look like in the next century? The changing faces of Americans provide some of the answers. The fact is, health care in this country will be transformed by the same demographic trends sweeping American society: the aging of the population, the feminization of the workplace, and the nation's increasing ethnic heterogeneity. With one of every six U.S. households headed by a woman living alone, the baby-boom generation moving through middle age, and a youthful minority population becoming a majority in some of the largest states, the implications are many for programs like Medicare and Medicaid and for the general focus of our health care efforts. Contributing editor Emily Friedman sorts out the changes that will rock society and transform the health care system in the process.