With Botox, wrinkle creams and plastic surgery readily available, people these days are looking a lot younger as they enter their golden years. But regardless of the how smooth their faces may be, their bodies are getting pretty rickety.

In fact, U.S. residents in their 60s are experiencing more disabilities than did their parents or their grandparents, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The study, sponsored by the National Institute on Aging and published in the American Journal of Public Health, is the first to chronicle the end of two decades of improving function among the elderly.

Significant increases in disability were noted among individuals between ages 60 and 69, regardless of their sociological or demographic characteristics, health status and health behaviors. However, disability rates were highest among non-whites and people who were obese or overweight, researchers found.

By contrast, there was a lower prevalence of disability among individuals over age 80, suggesting that the oldest people in the study group had better nutrition and better medical care than did the generations that preceded or came after them, resulting in less disability later in life.

But it's not only the bodies of baby boomers that are breaking down sooner than those of their ancestors. Research recently reported by the Integrated Benefits Institute found that nine out of 10 active employees have one or more chronic health problems. Many suffer from multiple conditions such as depression, diabetes, asthma and heart disease.

This certainly explains the urgency for national health care reform. In fiscal 2008, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, we spent more than $1 trillion—nearly half of the federal budget—on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, which provides benefits to disabled individuals under age 65.

In 1962, before Medicare was enacted, defense spending made up half of the federal budget and Social Security was about 15%. By 2007, defense spending was only 20% of the budget while Social Security made up 21% and Medicare was 16% and rising.

As the UCLA researchers concluded, “Our results have significant and sobering implications: Older Americans face increased disability, and society faces increased costs to meet the health care needs of these disabled Americans.”

Fortunately, enlightened employers have begun trying to tackle this problem through health promotion programs and value-based benefit design, which improve patients' adherence to medications and prevent chronic conditions from worsening and costing more later.

Despite the recession, which is forcing many U.S. companies to do more with less, most are keeping these programs in place, recognizing that they will save more than they cost in the long run. Some employers even are cracking down on employees' poor health habits that could lead to disability later in life, charging employees who use tobacco, are inactive or overweight more for their health benefits than their counterparts with healthy lifestyles.

A component of one of the health reform bills being considered by Congress would increase the limit on the dollar value of incentives that employers are allowed to offer employees to participate in wellness programs. Hopefully, this provision will be enacted.

In addition to paying employees to take better care of their health, employers also should be rewarded for sponsoring and investing in these health-promotion efforts. If fewer people become disabled when they retire, it could slow the growth in federal spending on entitlement programs, such as Social Security and Medicare, and hopefully eliminate the need for onerous future tax increases to support them.