Aging and the Demand for Health Services: Which Aged and Whose Demand?

Universally insured medical and hospital services provided the opportunity to trace the health care utilized by a large probability sample of elderly residents of Manitoba, Canada. The findings suggest that most elderly are healthy and that they are low, infrequent users of services. A minority were identified who are very high users of health care. The potential influence of physician discretion and of the growth in the number of physicians on the utilization patterns of the elderly are discussed.