If there is one point on which the myriad of reports on old age dependency agree, it is the urgent need to strengthen prevention.
However, a poor relation in France, it still occupies a marginal place in public policies.
Faced with the demographic shock - those over 85 will triple by 2050 - a real strategy to prevent the loss of autonomy (medical visits at key ages in life, early screening, adaptation of housing, etc. ) would however improve the life of a quarter of the population and nearly a third tomorrow, underlines the Court of Auditors in a report published Thursday.
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Because if life expectancy at retirement is higher in France than elsewhere in Europe, healthy years only count for half.
In addition to the individual and collective benefit for those concerned, the Court calculated that a gain of one year of life expectancy without disability would represent a saving of 1.5 billion euros per year for health insurance.
To achieve this, the Court recommends concentrating the multiplicity of actors who intervene in a "
teeming and complex administrative area
": departments, regions, municipalities, Social Security, ARS, pension funds, National Housing Agency, etc.
She suggests amplifying the adaptation of housing, while simplifying the “millefeuille” of aid and standardizing procedures.
Finally, the Court recommends that the public authorities launch an ambitious public health plan to reduce falls… responsible for 10,000 deaths each year!