People go through various stages of life, from infancy to old age. Society installed policies and programs to ensure that individuals and family members are able to support and sustain these stages of growth. One of the programs earmarked to support the elderly sector of the population is Medicare. It is unethical to provide partial access to elderly care, especially in terms of subsidizing caretaking costs. The purpose of the elderly care program, of which Medicare is one of the supporting institutions, is to ensure that each and every citizen reaching the age of 60 years and above would be provided with high quality of care, including the ability to support and sustain needs for medication and caretaking in cases of illnesses. The concept of elderly care is definitely supported by deontological ethics, specifically in terms of upholding the position that an action towards the elderly population is deemed to be ethical depending on the action itself. Currently, Medicare is only responsible for 80% of medical care and 0% of home care or care taking. As such, one asserts that Medicare should cover 100% of medical care and home care or care assistance. As such, the action is clearly unfair and unjust for the elderly, especially those who could not afford to shoulder home care or caretaking costs. The deontological ethics actually emphasizes the need to balance rights and obligations . As citizens, each and every one has the right to be provided with appropriate care, especially in times of getting old. Likewise, each and every one also has the obligation to ensure that the elderly population’s (composed of each citizen’s parents and grandparents) health and caretaking needs are comprehensibly attended to. In ensuring that Medicare takes care of 100% of the medical and caretaking costs for all elderly member of the population, the rights and obligations to the sector is addressed for all.
References
Kurtz, P., & Burr, R. L. (n.d.). Chapter 11: Ethics and Health. Retrieved from jblearning.com: http://www.jblearning.com/samples/076371786X/1786X_CH11_248_269.pdf
