Will long-run health trends in Europe turn negative?

Alarmed by the worsening health for middle-aged baby-boomers in the US, we conduct a cohort analysis of health deficits similar to Abeliansky and Strulik (2019) but focus on middle-aged individuals. As opposed to previous findings, we find that health among the middle-aged has stalled, and in some cases worsened, for the more recent birth cohorts. Our results are robust to different definitions of the health index. Our results are relevant for the ongoing discussion on how to achieve longer healthy working lives. They also have important implications in terms of expected future public and private costs of health care for middle-aged and older individuals.