eat donuts for breakfast? pay for your own health care

cm1179

cm1179

cm1179

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http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dr-phillip-lee-conservative-mp-1458840
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20508405

he's got it in for type 2 diabetes sufferers.

as a smoker, i'm obviously not over the moon about the possibility of me being landed with a bill if i were to be hit with an illness due to smoking, especially with the amount of tax on a packet of cigarettes, plus my NI contributions but mainly because if the government sees smoking as such a negative thing, why not just ban them? i would welcome a ban. addiction is no fun thing.

however, i do agree on the eating thing, which may be what dr lee is getting at with the diabetes though i do understand that having diabetes is not necessarily caused by obesity.

obesity in this country is rising and i don't see why the nhs should continue to spend £millions on the problems caused by people who quite simply, eat way too much and don't move enough.
 

Seft

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At a guess, the reduced lifespan of these guys will more than pay for the cost of obesity-related illness. Medical expenses and state benefits for the elderly add up to a princely sum.
 

InertProtocol

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cm1179 said:
obesity in this country is rising and i don't see why the nhs should continue to spend £millions on the problems caused by people who quite simply, eat way too much and don't move enough.
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So why should they spend £millions on people who are ill through smoking?.

It's your choice to smoke, you know the consequences (i hope!) so if you're ill because of it then that's your fault.
 

:(Rhodri:)

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It's a daft idea - where do you draw the line if someone injures themselves whilst cycling? Climbing? Doing DIY? These are peoples lifestyle choices as well, and it makes more sense to do what they do currently, which is to tax cigarettes, cakes etc. at the point of sale.

I'd also assume that obese people will on average have a much lower lifespan, so I guess that's a money saving mechanism built in.
 
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Nexus

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Morbidly Obese people still pay their taxes though, unless they are so overweight that they can't work. As such, they are still just as much entitled to healthcare, though we don't have to like that.
 

Nexus

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Rhodri2311 said:
It's a daft idea - where do you draw the line if someone injures themselves whilst cycling? Climbing? Doing DIY? These are peoples lifestyle choices as well, and it makes more sense to do what they do currently, which is to tax cigarettes, cakes etc. at the point of sale.
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Indeed, where do you draw that line...

I'm sure from watching the likes of '24 Hours in A&E', they said that the number one course of hospital admissions is drinking, both from injuries and alcohol related diseases.

Second to that is injuries from amateur level football and rugby, which again is a lifestyle choice.
 

Disco Boy

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Metalface Mark said:
If someone smoked 20 a day from 18 to 65 and got lung cancer, their taxes wouldnt cover the cost of the treatment, its not a valid reason.
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In 2006, the revenue from tobacco was 9.8bn per in the UK. The cost to the NHS was 5.2bn.

No I am not a smoker, but facts are facts.

Sources:
http://www.the-tma.org.uk/tma-publications-research/facts-figures/tax-revenue-from-tobacco/

http://www.ic.nhs.uk/webfiles/publi...s on Smoking 2012/stats_smok_eng_2102_rep.pdf
 

Gilly

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Nexus said:
Indeed, where do you draw that line...

I'm sure from watching the likes of '24 Hours in A&E', they said that the number one course of hospital admissions is drinking, both from injuries and alcohol related diseases.

Second to that is injuries from amateur level football and rugby, which again is a lifestyle choice.
Click to expand...

I doubt the injuries from alcohol (note: not the related diseases) and from amateur sport cost anything like the illnesses related to smoking.
 

Nexus

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Of course not, but they are still caused by a choice somebody made to do something, just like smoking.

I have no idea what the figures are, but admissions for people drinking every weekend causing a huge strain on the NHS, which workers are very vocal about, that clearly adds up to quite a large monetary sum.
 

413x

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indeed where do you draw the line.

i guess taxing to break even is the fairest way. Although obviously i wouldnt be against the idea of charging obese people for surgery or smokers for theirs.

I do feel we are heading for a dilution of the current NHS system.
Be it higher smoking/fatty food taxes or partly pay for yourself if you do X,Y,Z something has to give
 
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