The admission came as a report from the Australian College of Emergency Medicine shows more older Australians are arriving in emergency rooms and are sicker.
In the six years to 2024, hospital visits by over-65s spiked 16 per cent, compared to just four per cent for those younger, the reports shows.
It's a problem everyone saw coming, college president Peter Allely said.
"This has been the most predictable public demographic for the last few decades," Dr Allely told AAP before the release of the report on Tuesday.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2010 predicted the number of over-85s presenting to EDs would grow more than fivefold by 2050.
Dr Allely said the forecasts were spot on.
"They plotted a curve, which unfortunately ... is starting to go exponential," he said.
Health Minister Mark Butler said issues involved with an ageing population were hitting the hospital sector.
"(There is) more work that we have to do to make sure that our health and aged care services are up to scratch," Mr Butler told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.
"Emergency departments are dealing with very different presentations to the traditional bread and butter work of EDs, which was car accidents and heart attacks and things like that."
Mr Butler said Australia was at a tipping point with more Baby Boomers entering aged care, but simply adding more beds to the system in residential care would not be enough.
"There is no single answer, (the answer is) right across the board," he said.
"As the oldest Baby Boomers start to enter their 80s, their need for good quality aged care and health services is skyrocketing, frankly, and that's a challenge for all governments."
For every 72 people who wait in emergency departments longer than eight hours, one person will die, on average.
Not long ago, more than 95 per cent of patients were discharged from emergency in fewer than eight hours. Now, that's dropping.
"It's like we need 700 things done three per cent better," Dr Allely said.
Most older patients arrive by ambulance, the vast majority need care within 30 minutes and about half are admitted to hospital, according to the report.
Regional Australia is also ageing at about double the speed of capital cities, meaning overstretched services have grappled with almost twice the increase in older ED presentations than elsewhere.
"This is not the fault of older people, it is a success story, it's testament to modern science, medical advances and good public policy," Dr Allely said.
"The system has not planned or prepared for the inevitable needs of people as they get older and more frail and more complicated."
The college's report recommends bolstering non-hospital treatment pathways for older people, unclogging emergency departments, expanding prevention and funding research to keep more geriatrics out of waiting rooms.
"There aren't many efficiencies to be gained in the healthcare system, but there will be some," Dr Allely said.
It comes as it's revealed about 80,000 older Australians are expected to ditch private health insurance cover by 2030 if Labor succeeds in winding back generous rebates, to be spent elsewhere in the system.
Mr Butler said private health insurance figures would continue to grow, but indicated changes were still needed.
"We have to take hard decisions to ensure that we're able to find the funds necessary to fund the expansion of aged care services that I think everyone recognises that we need," he said.
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