14 Jun 2007 Health Care Rationing, Government-Style

Writing on his excellent personal blog, David Hogberg compares the myths promoted by advocates of government health care systems with the realities in nations that have such systems, noting that a half million Britons have now been told they will have to quit smoking for at least four weeks if they want certain surgeries.

I guess the British government bureaucrats who make decisions on behalf of British doctors and patients believe quitting smoking is easy enough that a person facing surgery will be able to quit, even when that person is probably feeling an unsual amount of stress. (Funny, the activists here claim smoking is addictive.)

Either that, or it is just another government health care excuse for delaying surgeries.

Britain’s government-run health care system has already banned some surgeries for women weighing over 168 pounds, and men weighing over 210. In that circumstance, the government has pretty much admitted the motive is saving money, prompting an indignant Scotsman newspaper editorialist, Dana Garavelli, to write: “Fat people pay taxes, too.”

So do smokers, I believe.
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Labels: Government Health Care, Health Care