NEW YORK CITY—A presentation by Ventas Inc. at this month's Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Real Estate Conference helps chart the hows and whys of the healthcare real estate sector's rise to prominence in the 15 years since GlobeSt.com launched. For one thing, there have been the dynamics of what has been called a silver boom: the oldest of the Baby Boom generation had recently turned 54 when this website made its debut; this coming Jan. 1 they'll begin turning 70.

And there will be millions more to follow them. “Between 2010 and 2030, the number of individuals age 65+ is projected to nearly double from 39 million to 73 million people, a growth rate nearly 5x faster than the 18% increase expected for the total population” during that time period, according to VTR's presentation. “As a result the percentage of Americans 65+ is estimated to grow from 13% to 20% of the population by 2030.” Furthermore, the cohort of Americans age 75 and over is expected to grow 8x faster than the general population between now and 2060, according to VTR, whose own timeline of growth into a market-leading healthcare REIT roughly parallels this website's years of operation. CEO Debra A. Cafaro took the reins in 1999 and, as the new millennium began, turned around a company that had been on the verge of collapse.

Although the graying of America—and the world—has been underway for several years, another change in healthcare demographics is tied to a single event that has occurred since this website launched. That would be the enactment of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 to—among other things—require individual healthcare insurance and create exchanges to obtain such coverage if it isn't otherwise provided. Both of these provisions faced challenges before the US Supreme Court, which ruled to uphold them.

After the more recent of the two Supreme Court decisions upholding the ACA, King vs. Burwell, Colliers International's Mary Beth Kuzmanovich told GlobeSt.com that the ruling represented “a huge financial outcome for healthcare as an industry because health systems' revenue stream remains intact. The decision gives providers confidence that the funds remain intact and will not be tied up in court.”

With uncertainty of both the ACA's gradual phase-in and legal challenges now in the past, healthcare systems will now be willing to make long-term decisions and commit funds to real estate. Previously they were uncertain if the money would be there to support those initiatives, Kuzmanovich, national director of healthcare services at Colliers, told GlobeSt.com's Carrie Rossenfeld in July. “This has a calming effect of opening the dam a little and helping to actualize those plans,” Kuzmanovich said, adding that since the ruling was national, it affects healthcare decisions throughout the country.

On a national level, the ACA should increase the utilization rate at many medical facilities, according to VTR's presentation. It cited projections from the Congressional Budget Office that an additional 25 million will gain access to insurance coverage by 2016 as a result of the ACA. This would represent an increase of about 12% from estimated levels prior to healthcare reform being enacted.