Britain’s NHS Makes Controversial Proposal
A few years ago, Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) considered refusing to treat obese people for lifestyle-related illnesses. In the same vein, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), the NHS’s guidance body, produced advice that raised the prospect of heavy smokers and obese people being refused healthcare. An NHS health trust in Northern England now proposes to stop sending obese people and smokers for certain operations because their unhealthy lifestyles allegedly lower the chance of an operation’s success.
Full article on the NHS.
In that same vein, if you don’t brush your teeth, NHS should prohibit you from seeing a dentist.
Rationing by any other name is still rationing.
Ominous. Obama Care officials are watching.
This article is really fascinating. …and slightly evil. The implication is that we should encourage MORE smoking and MORE fast food, since it lowers our overall costs.
A few years ago, I was watching a Frontline program about the elderly. One of the doctors said, “You can cure them of cancer or give them a life-saving operation, but they’re still going to die on something else in 2, 5, or 10 years.” It’s true. The skinny people still die of something, and often it’s after years of slow deterioration and decline, which is a very expensive way to die; heart attacks or invasive lung cancer are comparatively cheap.
Political views are next. One NHS trust refused treatment to an anti-abortion protestor. It said he was too “disruptive.”
I find it a little worrisome that an NHS Trust can arbitrarily decide not to treat people within its jurisdiction based on unilateral decisions.