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Our Hearts Were Once Young And Gay: Health Care Rationing And The Elderly, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

Although there exists no rigid guideline delineating society's obligation to provide health care, at a minimum Americans are entitled to an adequate level of care without excessive burdens being placed upon them. Fulfilling this ostensibly simple mandate, however, presents an enormous challenge. The need to allocate limited financial and human resources increasingly clashes with the moral desire to provide health care resources to elder Americans beyond their years of economic productivity. As a result, health care professionals face the difficult task of weighing against society's other priorities the efficiency of distributing limited health care resources to the elderly. This demand …