But it has to be somewhere in the lawmaking process. Imagine there is a perfect but very costly cure for Alzheimer, imagine the price to cure one person is equivalent to the GDP of the whole country.
On the other hand, you cannot let people harm themselves and then do everything to save them. What is the cost to repair somebody who went out of his way to cut his hand in a very dirty way, such that it would take hundred of hours of surgery?
In democratic countries the politicians care about how the expenditure looks to the public. People think that 5 billion dollars in welfare is a lot of money, so it's hard to spend more welfare. People do not think that 5 trillion dollars on "defense" is a lot of money, so it's easy to spend more money on defense even though it has at best dubious return on investment.
On the other hand, you cannot let people harm themselves and then do everything to save them. What is the cost to repair somebody who went out of his way to cut his hand in a very dirty way, such that it would take hundred of hours of surgery?