If the NHS is going to refuse people treatment for their lifestyle choice then should these people be allowed?

Question

to opt out of paying for services that they are going to be refused?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=505467&in_page_id=1774&ct=5

Answer 1

Completely agree with what you're saying. This is nothing more than social manipulation by unelected and unaccountable health fascists with too much time on their hands, content on picking on easy targets. What next? People who fall off ladders won't get treatment? People who are in car accidents won't get treatment? Who the hell are these people to say how we should live our lives? Like you say, will they get a reduction in the NI, or be able to opt out of paying it altogether? Don't think so....we are heading towards a fascist state where we will all have to comply. You must comply, or you will be deleted!

George Orwell was right! He just got the year wrong...

Answer 2

This government is getting more outrageous all the time! I'm obese and smoke - but I pay thousands each year in taxes and have lived 44 years with only visiting a doctor on three occassions and been in hospital to give birth to my daughter! I think I have certainly paid for any treatment I might get in the future.

How far is this going to go? Are we going to charge people who climb mountains for their rescue if they get stuck - or refuse them benefit if they have an accident which makes them incapable of doing anything? Potholers who put their lives and their rescuers at risk? all those who go on skiing holidays or do scuba diving or parascending?

Everything we do in life is a risk - do you not get treatment if you have a car crash because you chose to get in a car? The list could go on for ever.

Its about time people saw this government for the scaremongering little sh**s they are and start wondering what stupid laws they are pushing through whilst we are worrying about silly matters like this.

I would just like to add, for those who believe the American system is good, what do you suppose happens if you get an expensive to treat condition ie, heart disease, cancer, diabetes etc. You soon find out that your insurance company no longer covers you or your payments go up to beyond the affordable and you can no longer get any treatment at all!

Answer 3

Does this mean if you are taken into A&E you are going to have to answer a questioner about your lifestyle even if you are in agony before they will treat you,Or yet again the Government are picking on the most vunerable of scociety (Yet again)What about cancer patients or heart attack victims is the cause of these illnesses when found out going to result in discharge if the person is obese,a smoker,drinker,Or is the patient an inconvenience to the NHS we worked in the NHS because one of its tennets was we would discriminate against no one who needed help,I think Values and the PC brigade are ruining this country UK and all that it used to stand for,I am ANGRY AND ASHAMED.What Happy new year in the UK.Go on like this and you will have to be a saint to get any treatment,Sorry forgot saints are already dead people,Oh well back to the drawing board.

Answer 4

Yes they should and anyway how many people actually have any faith in the NHS and it's 2nd rate staff. What they forget is that the tax payers, including drinkers and smokers, pay their wages. I don't drink, am not obese and smoke sometimes, so are they going to refuse me treatment, not that I want it from the NHS thank you very much.

Answer 5

I feel you have to put yourself in the position of a surgeon, who has on his list very ill, patients who desperately need his/Her Help.
Then an emergency is brought in, This patient is well known to you as being a Smoker, who has been warned many times this was going to happen this Heart attack. Cancer,etc and has constantly ignored the expert advice.
Are you inclined to treat this patient in the full knowledge that whatever you do or say the patient will continue to ignore the advice given and, will be back again, taking up time and space in theatre from a really poorly person who does not smoke or drink and who is in your theatre through no fault brought about by himself,???

Answer 6

i agree instead of the government extorting money from the tax payer give us the choice the americans do this and it works so well ,you have a choice sort out your own medical insurance or dont,i think treatment would improve and waiting lists would be less as we know doctors are like politicians greedy .

Answer 7

OK let me see how this works:
We refuse treatment to:

Smokers
Obese people
Heavy Drinkers
why not extend the ban to:
Sportsmen/women - after all they get injured playing a sport of their choice.
Pregnant women - (unless as a result of rape) - after all they chose to become pregnant.
Anyone who gets injured as a driver or passenger in a car/on a motorbike/on a train/bus etc. after all they chose to take the risk.
Mmmm. this could save the NHS a fortune........or do you think I've gone too far?

Answer 8

Absolutely not.
We pay our taxes, directly and indirectly. and the NHS was set up on that basis.
How does any government arrive at a sum that (e.g.) a smoker should have his or her tax bill reduced by on the basis that they will not receive treatment for their disease?
The argument is a nonsense.
Who gets excluded?
How many "self inflicted" health problems is it possible to identify?
Are all of those excluded from health care?
The NHS is supposed to take care of the health of the population of the UK "from the cradle to the grave". No exclusions, no caveats. That is the contract that the government made with the populace, when all of those "lifestyle choices" were taken into account.
It is not the fault of the populace if current thought suggests (or even proves) that what was once OK is no longer so.
The NHS, is supposed to honour that commitment.
I find it disgusting that the contract made at the birth of the NHS, and the subsequent rake of taxes from all of those areas that are now thought to be less deserving of treatment, might be broken.

Answer 9

FACT: 4 billion per year spent on smoking related illnesses on the NHS
FACT: 8 billion per year raised in taxes in cigarettes
OPINION: This fascist government needs shooting

Answer 10

If taxpayers are being forced to pay for your health care then taxpayers, or their representatives, have the right, and OBLIGATION, to demand that you live a healthy life. Obesity, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, use of certain drugs, promiscuous sexual activity all lead to medical problems for which no one has "the right" to demand society pay the price of treatment. This is one of the main reasons I am against socialist medicine here in America.