There was a time when professional ethics alone gave health care moral commitment. However, that has irrevocably changed. Governments are facing increasing difficulty in paying the escalating costs of health care. The Hippocratic Code is silent on who pays and fails to address the issue of scarce resources as well as population needs. There will always be cases where medical interventions would be beneficial but cannot be funded.
Choices have to be made and any choice results in an opportunity cost.
Choices that maximise health from a given budget are most desirable. However, individual people faced with illness expect to be treated. Any treatment defers illness until another occurs, before an inevitable death. 2 Modern medicine is supplying individuals with high technology medicine that delays death. Nevertheless, this is valued by society because it allows individuals to be as healthy as possible into productive old age.