The purpose of this paper is to review what is known about the links between ageing and health spending, and methods to project the future health spending impacts of an ageing population. Most of the literature that is presented in this paper comes from developed countries, particularly the United States. The authors believe, however, that an analysis of this literature can contribute effectively to the creation of policy-relevant information in developing countries in two important ways. First, by highlighting key factors in the growth of health spending related to the elderly, it would help, in the short-run, to better guide planners to relevant “control-knobs” of the health system that can influence it, even in the absence of fully accurate data. Second, it would contribute by identifying the data and methods that are needed for effective estimation of health spending linked to the elderly and for their reasonably accurate projection in the future.