Vision For a Healthy Aging Europe

Pedro Barros, Professor of Economics at the Nova School of Business & Economics is an expert in Health Economics and explains to host, Maithreyi Seetharaman, why Europe needs to have a New Vision for how it will take care of the health of the elderly as the population ages into 2060.

Maithreyi Seetharamani: So, are we in Europe looking at the issue in the right way and what are the policies you would recommend to European governments that they must focus on.

Pedro Barros: Well its difficult to get one policy that fits all of them. But probably having a new vision for healthcare that can be shared across all countries will be the starting point for that and policies can unfold. Probably thinking about what people want in their elderly years, how they want to be treated and what kind of care they want to receive is the first important point. Then you can see whether you want to have a network of physicians helping them with different specialities. If you want to focus more on primary care, which is more or less the consensus – That will be the coordinator of this network – All of this will help people understand better what is also their role in taking care of their health. SO if you have a vision that says – people should also make an effort to be healthy and to think about the system where they are inserted that the system is worried more about catering to their preferences and their needs instead of thinking of the system itself – that’s probably the best policy I would say. That will mean probably different solutions in different countries and probably even inside the same country – different solutions for different people. But as long as people get what they want – I think that’s great.