An Evaluation of the Financing of Healthy Aging Through the Lens of Social Welfare: Healthy Aging Index

Healthy aging plays a critical role in determining the policy measures needed to protect the health and well-being of the aging population. Although countries implement various policies to promote healthy aging, it is difficult to obtain comparable data on the extent to which countries achieve healthy aging. As a matter of fact, the United Nations’ Decade of Healthy Ageing Baseline Report underlines the need for cross-country comparable data to monitor and evaluate healthy aging. Within the scope of this chapter, the Healthy Aging Index (HAI) has been developed and the indicators of healthy aging related to individuals and social policy are discussed in the index. With HAI, countries were classified as low, medium, and high and the factors causing this difference were discussed. In order to support healthy aging, it is necessary to develop age-friendly health services, remove barriers to access to health services, and encourage preventive health services. In order to strengthen the social connections of older people, it is important to support community-based activities and organize programs that encourage social participation for older people. Strengthening social assistance and retirement systems for older people to ensure their economic well-being plays a critical role in preventing elderly poverty.