Experts debate on the economic situation of the elderly in Spain and Europe.

-According to experts, our pension system is assured for the next 15-20 years, unless further increasing unemployment

– in all countries of the European Union, women over 65 years of age had a median income less than that of men

Spain, 2011-October in the third and last day of the fifty-third national Congress of the society Spanish of Geriatrics (SEGG), 32 ° Congress of the Andalusian society of Geriatrics (SAGG) and 7th Congress of the European Union Geriatric Medicine Society (EUGMS), discussed the disadvantages associated with ageing in times of crisis and the sustainability issues affecting the public health system and the law of unit.

According to Jordi Varela, Director General of the Hospital of la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona national health systems have reached a limit, because the user becomes consumers and their health problem ends up being a problem of the Government ”. Varela recommends that to achieve the sustainability of our health system it is essential that society is aware of the use of health resources, and in addition, inappropriate demand and useless and redundant diagnostic tests should be reduced.

In Exchange, José Chamizo, defender of the Andalusian people, and also rapporteur of this session of the Congress of Geriatrics, explained that both talk about sustainability and cuts is taking us to the dehumanization ” and showed their discontent when making cuts in health and other services that constitute the welfare state.

For his part, Professor Jesús Ruíz-Huerta, Professor of Economics of the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, explained the economic differences that exist among the elderly of the European Union. But there are certain similarities: in all European countries, the average income of the elderly is lower than the national and also there is the fact that in these countries, women over 65 years of age had a median income less than that of men ”.

One of the measures taken to ensure our pension system has been the delay the retirement age, something that is already noticeable in the average age of exit from the labour market that has become of 59.9 years in 2001 to 61.4 years in 2009.

But to ensure the sustainability of the pension system, Professor Ruiz-Huerta says that as well as a greater flexibility in the output of the labour market, is necessary to maintain and strengthen the pension system and the intergenerational pact of income implicit ”, thus, pensions are assured for the next 15-20 yearsunless you follow increasing unemployment. Must be defended at all costs the welfare State and organize priorities before applying the economic adjustment ”, concluded Ruíz-Huerta.

Congress

Last Friday closed the fifty-third national Congress of the society Spanish of Geriatrics (SEGG), 32 ° Congress of the Andalusian society of Geriatrics (SAGG) and 7th Congress of the European Union Geriatric Medicine Society (EUGMS).

During the last three days more than 2,500 national and international attendees have gathered in the Palace of congresses and exhibitions of Malaga in which they have been imparted more than 80 conferences and 800 oral communications.