All sorts of government programs are designed to benefit the people as a whole, but, as implemented and practiced, they have not succeeded in their mission, to wit, America, which is the richest nation in the world. This would signify that more needs to be done to be of aid and help to those that are amongst its most vulnerable and that the true measure of any country that desires to be perceived as being great, or as being superior in its governance to all other nations is how that country treats those that are its most vulnerable, which are typically those that are ill and the aged.
Indeed, not too surprisingly, people who are very ill and people who are very old typically have very little utility to their country, because they are not able to work or to accomplish many things that able-bodied people can do, which thus makes them an economic burden to the state. This is the reality, and this is something that will not change: the ill and aged are going to cost the nation a price that could be readily paid by a nation of wealth, or could be dealt with in a way and manner that is not truly humane to its most vulnerable.
To believe that it is the best governmental policy to talk the talk about promoting the general welfare of all the people, but when push comes to shove, ignoring those that are its most vulnerable in a way and manner that these infirm people do not get an appropriate amount of consideration and care, reflects badly on the priorities and structure of its governance. After all, while death cannot be avoided, it can be dealt with in which those that are near their end of life are still valued and thereby treated with the care and concern that they are due as fellow human beings. So too, those that are ill, whether that be physical, mental, or spiritual, are the same that should be accorded the type of consideration that will lessen the burden that they have to carry, and to the degree that our healthcare system can ameliorate their illness, should be addressed to do that very thing.
In fact, we seem to have a nation that despite incredible amounts of money devoted to healthcare doesn't seem to allocate how those monies are spent and utilized responsibly, probably because this nation insists upon a for-profit healthcare system in its capitalistic system, which quite frankly signifies that profit comes before people which is why we get the pathetic results that we get presently, where way too many Americans suffer through illnesses without proper care and the aged are tar too often treated as an expense to be reduced, in which the humanity of our most vulnerable citizens is put aside, because money matters more, and those that are infirmed, aged, and impoverished are considered bad for business which is why they have no fair access to the security and care that their nation could provide for them, and thus this is the national shame that America continues to ignore.