Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Even as John Edwards talks about a universal health system that will require visits to the doctors, the Conservatives of the UK discuss not allowing those who live "unhealthy lifestyles" to gain benefits from the National Health Service (via Drudge):

Patients who refuse to change their unhealthy lifestyles should not be treated by the NHS, the Conservatives said today.

In a bid to ease spiralling levels of obesity and other health concerns, a Tory panel said certain treatments should be denied to patients who refuse to co-operate with health professionals and live healthier lifestyles.

This report suggests that the NHS should discriminate amongst forms of living to decide who gets treatment (even though, it seems, all would still pay taxes to subsidize this "national" health care system):
"It is inconsistent with the concept of the responsible citizen to imagine that it is realistic for citizens, having paid their taxes, to expect that the state will underwrite the health implications of any lifestyle decision they choose to make," the report states.