Proposed Plan to Spend More on Prevention and Less on end-of-life Care
Strengthening primary healthcare reduces the process of contracting the disease. Similarly, the model improves community surveillance to identify people with certain illnesses and treating them appropriately. The central pillar of the model is improving the continuity of care through increasing community participation, as described below.
Primary Health Care
The members of the community are the primary stakeholders of any health delivery system. Such people must understand the objectives and performance of a healthcare system. The process of educating the community is thus pivotal in enhancing continuity of care. People should receive empowerment on the signs and symptoms of minor illnesses. The health-seeking behavior of an empowered community improves drastically. The improvement translates to early detection and treatment of chronic disease. As a result, there is a change in the natural progression of the disease, an increase in life expectancy, and a reduction in the cost in the treatment.
Community Education
Similarly, individuals living within the catchment area of a given health facility must understand the options of linkage to the hospital. For instance, the hotline numbers to the hospital should be supplied to all members of the community. Availing the details of referral also helps the individuals to access care. Therefore, the government and all the stakeholders should invest a sufficient amount in money in developing a robust communication system. Such a system leads to the sustenance of communication and the prevention of infectious disease.
Euthanasia
Euthanasia or mercy killing is a process through which a person with irreparable end-organ damage undergoes assisted death. The process involves the use of painless methods of hastening the process of dying. For instance, the use of a high dose of insulin to achieve hypoglycemia in a person with metastatic colorectal cancer with severely disabling consequences is an example of the procedure. Similarly, a brain-dead patient in the intensive care unit should be a candidate for euthanasia. The process, therefore, relieves the family of the financial costs involved in taking care of the terminally ill individuals. The other benefit of mercy killing to the family is the reduction of the psychological trauma associated with caring for a dying patient. Thus the process promotes the mental health of the family at large. It is crucial to note that the process of euthanasia in this process model is only applicable is both the family and the healthcare practitioners agree that the patient is likely to benefit from such a process. The process must thus have sufficient scientific and factual evidence of the impending death. Besides, adequate documentation, including the consent of the family, is mandatory.
Addressing the Politics around Euthanasia
The ethical theory of utilitarianism helps in treating the politics around euthanasia. Utilitarianism puts the greater good of the community above a single individual’s interest. Since the prognosis of most of the terminal illnesses is understood, it is possible to predict the time of death of a terminally sick person using the positive predictive value from various research. Therefore, the process of euthanasia does not only accelerates the process of death but also reduces the amount of money used in caring for the sick. This method, therefore, allows the dependence of a deceased to receive an inheritance that caters to the primary health care models, as addressed in the previous section.