P2 PLENARY SESSION

Greying baby boomers – a twofold challenge

Thursday, 29.09.2016 | 14:15 - 16:15 | Kursaal A

Organised by International Forum Gastein and supported by European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations

Low fertility looks increasingly central to the economic and governing problems of advanced countries, especially in Europe. Remarkably, demography seems to be causing trouble on two fronts. The conventional problem is that of supporting social insurance for the elderly with a declining base of working-age adults, and that problem hasn't gone away. On top of this, however, stagnation or decline in the working-age population looks to be a likely force behind persistent macroeconomic weakness. It would be a mistake to focus only on the first problem, in ways that can aggravate the second. Considerations like these will provide the background against which the EHFG 2016 aims to discuss the future of European health systems. More older people, more dependent people, more multimorbid people – are these and other trends a threat to the sustainability of social and healthcare services? Can we maintain and even increase accessibility for all?

Keynote

Paul Krugman, Professor of Economics and Distinguished Scholar at The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics

Panel discussion

Following from Professor Krugman’s speech a high-level panel discussion will aim to sharpen the focus on European health policy issues. Doing so, this plenary at the core of the conference seeks to take a step towards intersectoral (health) policy thinking by combining the bigger picture of the economics of ageing in the long run with short-term implications for national health systems.

Paul Krugman, Professor of Economics and Distinguished Scholar at The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Martin Seychell, Deputy Director-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE), European Commission

Mojca Gobec, Director General, Ministry of Health, Slovenia

Fabio Pammolli, Professor, IMT Institute for Advanced Studies, Lucca

Moderation

Anya Sitaram, Founding Director and Executive Producer, Rockhopper TV

Newsroom

Maggie Davies, Executive Director, HAPI

Edwin Maarseveen, Ministry for Health, Welfare and Sport, The Netherlands