Should the health service charge fat people, drinkers, smokers and veggies for treatment caused by bad diet?

Answer 1

Absolutely not... that is the end of a very thin wedge... what next charging skiers for broken bones (even if not caused by skying?) an extra charge for heart disease for car drivers (the obviuos result of road rage)?


I don't pay less because I have private health insurance, I'll be damned if I am going to pay more because I have 3 pints a week!

Answer 2

This answer is very heartless...


Smokers:

There was a study a while ago which showed that smokers are good for society.

While it is true that they cost society a lot in terms of treatment if hey get something nasty like lung cancer, not all of them do. Plus they do tend to die younger than non-smokers. Overall, the savings from them dying younger are larger than the extra cost of cancer treatment and so on.

Therefore, smokers have a positive effect, not a negative effect on the health service.

The issue is secondary smoking; and that's because the secondary smokers do not pay taxes for the cigarette smoke they inhale.

The study did not include the health bill of secondary smokers.


Drinkers:

I'm thinking that the same rule would probably apply to drinkers. The good think about drinkers is that there is no secondary drinking; everyone who drinks contributes to the economy.


Veggies:

It hasn't been proven what type of diet works best. The people who live the longest and healthiest tend to eat fresh produce and a lot of fish, dairy products, but less red meat. (people from Sardinia, Japan...). If you want to tax vegetarians, I guess you should tax people who take much red meat too.


Fat People:

Some people are fat because of medical conditions, so I guess you should excuse them. Others are due to diet.


Overall:

I guess it would be better to tax red meat, and fast food joints quite heavily. The idea is to skew the cost of meals such that people are encouraged to eat healthily. Those who don't will contribute enough tax to eventually benefit everyone. The trick will be to assign the tax rates appropriately, and may be use some of it to subsidise the healthier foods.

Answer 3

NO, Those people pay their taxes the same as everyone else, in fact if they are smokers and drinkers they pay more into the system than someone who does not. This is such a broad subject. The last time i looked we lived in a democratic society, yet day after day we are told if we drink more than five drinks we are binge drinkers, we are told fat people are a drain on the NHS. Well.... what about people who play sports, people who are into extreme sports, people who fall asleep at the wheel, parents who pass medical conditions on to their children. Ethic minorities who suffer from conditions that only effect those minorities. Have we really become so detatched to the human condition that we start preaching to people what they will and wont do with regard to their personal lives. Each person is responsible for themselves, we know what is bad for us but some of us do it anyway, some would call it quality of life and freedom to choose. I am so tired of hearing people being judged because of they way they look or because they have a vice. There are much worse things going on in this world for us to be outraged and concerned about .

Answer 4

No. This is what they could do: ban all fatty foods, junk foods and the likes. Make exercise compulsory but people are only allowed to take up sports that pose no risk of injuries (like fractures or sprains etc.). Ban alcohol and classify it the same as heroin. Do the same with cigarettes. Make it compulsory that people have to eat certain amount of meat and no more! In fact, everybody would have to have a quota of how much of what they can consume. Ban cars, only public transport! Pedesrians should only be allowed to walk on designated areas where there's no way they could get run over by a bus. And the pathetic list can go on and on. Maybe we are heading into this judging by the Nanny State we live in. Good bye to personal freedom and human rights all because of the blame and compensation culture we live in.

Answer 5

Including veggies here is a gross. You need treatment. I have been a vegetarian for 57 years and have never suffered a serious illness due to this. People like you need locking up.
Yes smoking and drinking and eating in excess causes illness but how would you charge these people.
How many cigarettes, how many pints of beer, how much overweight before you are liable to a charge. How would you ensure that people told the truth about their habits in this matter?
Go back and thing again.

Answer 6

They already do - its called tax and national insurance.
If you are thinking of charging extra for self inflicted medical problems then it gets more complicated. For instance, supposing a smoker develops appendicitis and needs an operation then develops a chest infection - do you charge him for the full treatment or just the chest infection?
Should you include other forms of self inflicted conditions such as injuries from a car accident when the person is at fault? Should you charge stupid people who accidentally injure themselves through their stupidity?

Answer 7

smokers and drinkers raise a lot of money through there habits. I would rather see prison numbers cut and money saved by executing some of the animals we have locked up in this country costing £40,000 + pa, and spend that on Health!

Answer 8

They already do, That's if your working which in this country isn't a great amount, We pay it out of our wages on a sliding scale. When we go for prescriptions the cost £6.50 per Item. Go to the dentist You've got it you pay and NHS Charges have Just gone up. Go to the Opticians and guess what you pay. The only people that don't pay are pregnant women old folks still have to pay dental optical though.and of coarse PEOPLE ON THE DOLE

Answer 9

I do not think that Veggies can really be put into the same catagory as people who abuse their bodies, by eating too much, drinking or smoking,
Some Veggies do it to be fashionable and some because they feel it is not nice to kill and eat animals. They can't then be held up as having a bad diet just because they do not abuse their bodies with animal fat!

Answer 10

i would presume from your question thatyou eat very healthily and dont smoke?
while i think that smokers should pay for their treatments as they have conciously made the descision to smoke knowing that they are very likely to suffer for it , i do not believe we should expect people with weight issues to cough up. as a mother of two and a person who has struggled with weight issues from a teenager. can i ask you do you know how expensive it is to buy good quality fresh fruit and vegs and meat for a family , it takes a lot out of my weekly budget for shopping and i work!. if you are living on the poverty line as a very large percentage of families are it is almost impossible to afford good food and is much cheeper to get junk and rubbish.( look at school dinners for instance)
thats why the younger generations are getting bigger.
hey nobody is perfect.
dont forget that smoking and drinking is an addiction and while i find it hard to have sympathy for them they have the right to treatment, should we blame governent for this, they afterall have pushed booze and fags in front of us all our lives through adverts. i'm sure in years to come there will be no nhs and we will all have to pay for any treatment.