Healthcare for the Elderly - Essay Example

Health and Ethics People are presently living longer than before. Data from National Institute on Aging (2007), show that in 2006 about 500 million people globally were aged over 65 years. This number is projected to increase to 1 billion in 2030. There are several economic consequences that will be felt today and in future if no policies to address this increase in older people population. The National Institute on Aging (2007) notes that the present challenges include increased heath care budgets, decline in labor supply, and this is being felt in some countries like Greece, Germany and Italy, increase in taxes to fund healthcare for the older population and decline in trade and savings as these older population retire from active social participation.

These challenges being witnessed today will continue to be witnessed in future unless governments come up with responsive policies to address the situation. The best theory to apply in an ethical dilemma for how best to allocate the limited healthcare resources for an aging population and end-of-life care is utilitarianism (Harris, 1987). The theory holds that the best ethically acceptable action is the one that leads to greatest overall benefits. Accordingly, the practical use of utilitarian will be though the application of Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) as a tool of assessing the total gains from heath care approaches compared to others.

The ethical challenges to preparation of this healthcare provision are that utilitarian principle in resource allocation fails to offer an equitable approach of distributing resource (Lockwood, 1988). In addition, it fails to consider the variations in need for health care by focusing only on the benefits to be achieved, yet some groups may be more deserving to be allocated those resources. ReferenceHarris, J. (1987): Qualifying the value of life. Journal of Medical Ethics, 13: 117—23Lockwood, M, (1988):Quality of life and resource allocation”, in Philosophy and Medical Welfare, edited by J. M. Bell and S.

Mendus, Cambridge: Cambridge University PressNational Institute on Aging (2007): Why Population Aging Matters. A Global Perspective: National Institutes of Health U.S. Department of Health And Human Services: Retrieved from: http://www.nia.nih.gov/sites/default/files/WPAM.pdf