An article in the Wall Street Journal discussed Aspire Health, a startup firm that believes that it can use software to “predict which patients are likely to die in the next year and reduce their medical bills substantially by offering them palliative care at home. . . . Palliative care focuses on easing symptoms such as pain and shortness of breath that are often overlooked amid aggressive efforts to save seriously ill patients.”
a. Should providing palliative care to very ill patients, who are typically elderly, be an important goal of a health care system? Are there other goals that should have a higher priority? (Note: This question is basically a normative one without a definitive correct or incorrect answer. You are being asked to consider what the goals of a health care system should be.)
b. Would it be possible to measure how successful the health care systems of different countries are in providing palliative care? If so, how might it be done?