Besides funding constraints, the biggest issue facing the health care industry in relation to the aging baby boomer population is the severe shortage of health care professionals. Fewer than 1% of nurses, pharmacists and physician assistants are specialists in geriatrics. And fewer than half of medical schools require courses in geriatrics. As our Katie Gibas reports in this segment of "Aging America," some health care professionals are calling it a crisis the country isn't prepared to handle.

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"We're actually having to turn down cases because we don't have the technical staff to do it, and we can no longer do that," said Timothy Scanlon, the Operations Vice President Franciscan Companies.

Right now, there are about 7,000 geriatricians, but with the rapidly expanding aging population, health care experts say we'll need more than double that number.

"It's very culturally oriented to stay young, be young, look young, and all of our commercials are geared toward young people, so a lot of times, we don't see aging as something people want to do or take care of those who are aging," said Sharon Brangman, American Geriatrics Society Board Chair and Upstate Medical University Geriatrics Division Chief.

That's why professors and program directors like Dale Avers are working to break down the bias against old age to get students more accustomed to and interested in treating aging adults.

"I actually have constructed the curriculum to have older adults involved in every single class so that the students can become familiar and comfortable with relatively active, well, older adults. So they don't get too afraid or turned off by the illness issue of older adults." "I wanted the young students to overcome those aging biases and then they get integrated into frailty and to nursing home, and I think that's unfortunately what happens that students get confronted with a whole host of complex medical conditions associated with aging and it gets overwhelming," said Avers.

But Avers says only about one third of medical schools actually require courses in geriatrics. Some offer electives, but research shows only three percent of medical students actually take the optional classes.

"We have to try to change the curriculum in all medical schools so that every medical student graduates with some knowledge-base in geriatrics and this also has to be infused into residency training," said Brangman.

Health care professionals say the additional training is so important because aging bodies react differently to medications and treatment than a younger person's body would.

"It's going to take knowledge that it's okay not to fix something. You talk for instance with hypertension, if you lower that blood pressure too much, let's say to what is normal for a younger adult, like you and I, you might cause dizziness, which might result in a fall," said Avers.

Besides the the reluctance to deal with older patients, people may be bi-passing geriatrics as a specialty for an even simpler reason: Money.

"Those specialties that talk with patients, and help coordinate their care get reimbursed at a lower rate than those that are procedure based. We have medical students who are graduating with significant amounts of debt, and they look and make decisions based on that as well as other things," said Brangman.

Avers added, "Yes funding is an issue, but I think where there's a will there's a way, and unfortunately we see so much ageism reflected in aging adults as well as health care professionals that it just doesn't become that priority."

Health care professionals say it's an issue that can't be ignored any longer, but many are skeptical that the attitude and economic state of the country will allow for the necessary resources to improve training for those who care for older adults.