Too old? Too fat? Too bad.
Posted on January 28th, 2008 by bile Categories and Tags: Uncategorized, British Medical Association, economics, freedom, healthcare, liberty, monopoly, nanny state, NHS, politics, socialism, UK, your moneyDoctors are calling for NHS treatment to be withheld from patients who are too old or who lead unhealthy lives.
Smokers, heavy drinkers, the obese and the elderly should be barred from receiving some operations, according to doctors, with most saying the health service cannot afford to provide free care to everyone.
Fertility treatment and “social” abortions are also on the list of procedures that many doctors say should not be funded by the state.
The findings of a survey conducted by Doctor magazine sparked a fierce row last night, with the British Medical Association and campaign groups describing the recommendations from family and hospital doctors as “outrageous” and “disgraceful”.
About one in 10 hospitals already deny some surgery to obese patients and smokers, with restrictions most common in hospitals battling debt.
This is the “problem” that is created when people want centralized planning and universal coverage while ignoring scarcity.
- In a system where not all people are covered (can’t afford, discrimination based on previous conditions, etc.) by a service idealists rename it a right. As a right the government is obligated to provide it for the people.
- Since the government can’t change the scarcity of the service the attempt fails and things get worse as excessive regulation pushes up prices as the market signals and forces are distorted.
- The failure give the idealists the ammo to push for complete government control.
- Scarcity still exists and eventually to keep from going into debt the government acknowledges scarcity and must discriminate on who gets services.
You can have your service AND your freedom and I can almost guarantee that competition will push prices down past what a monopolistic government service could provide.
3 Responses to “Too old? Too fat? Too bad.”
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January 28th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
A PAC of fatties can take care of this problem. Doctors’ salaries should be capped and the money should be used to provide this basic human right of healthcare. Can you use eminent domain to claim kidneys from healthy people? All operations should cost a standard fee..say $3.50. This will make everyone healthy and solve all our problems. If the free market wants to participate, we’ll let them have cosmetic surgeries. All other essential health care will fall under "First Class Healthcare" and should only be provided by the government. Instead of companies wasting resources by competing to find cures for terminal diseases, there should be one federally funded laboratory. The research will be freely available to all the tax payers instead of the evil robber baron CEOs.
January 28th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
You better get to NHS quick before they go offering tummy tucks… oooops too late.
January 29th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Invisipunk, you need to post more, this is good stuff.