U.K.:'Too Fat' Patients Denied NHS Operations (smokers too; 6M people affected)

Sky News (U.K.) ^ | April 28, 2007 | Thomas Moore

[Glenn]

Do you feel the same way about reimbursing homes for those who live in eroding coastline neighborhoods?

Nice dodge, girly.

[Sarah]

no answer?
Here’s mine.
If someone has a sport induced injury, and has surgery, or whatever, to heal it. That’s one thing. But once it is known that there is a direct cause:affect relationship that free ride should be modified.
There should be a point of a person’s taking responsibility for the dangerous things he does.
Why on earth should health insurance (fully) pay for a joint replacement on a heavy person when for one thing there will probably be difficulties, and in any case he caused it willfully.
The real problem is the health insurance situation as we know it. Health insurance should be just that: Insurance against catastrophy, not a freebie that takes away individual responsibility.
Don’t you think someone who would have to bear the entire cost of his knee replacement might just be a little more attentive to his bathroom scale?

[Glenn]

Don’t you think someone who would have to bear the entire cost of his knee replacement might just be a little more attentive to his bathroom scale?

Every year thousands of young men are injured, and some killed, on the high school football field. Some are paralyzed for life, which you are paying for. Shall we do away with the sport? Same for diving, swimming, tennis, basketball and field hockey.

See, I think you just don't like fat people. But face it, babe -- you need fat people to feed your sense of smugness and to fire that judgmental furnace that lies at the heart of your personality.

[Sarah]

Don’t you think someone who would have to bear the entire cost of his knee replacement might just be a little more attentive to his bathroom scale?

I’ll take your rambling to mean ‘yes.’

(when you can follow a line of logic without getting all testy, personal and defensive, ping me.)

[Glenn]

when you can follow a line of logic without getting all testy, personal and defensive, ping me.

If you can ever present a line of logic, ping you I shall.

[cgbg]

when are people going to accept responsibility for their own health?

The answer: when governments and employers stop paying for it.

Remember that it is government policy that made private health insurance a tax free benefit in the US.

Btw any politican who suggests ending health benefits better wear a bullet and rock-proof vest in case someone actually hears their view (which the media will black out big-time).

The health benefit game is the perfect socialist storm--an infinite "need" is created with a finite supply of labor and materials--which means rapidly increasing prices which in turn mean larger and larger government expenditures and/or deficits.

There can be no end until the government and country is bankrupt, a revolution is in place, and health care devolves to Civil War battlefield conditions.

[EVO X]

A coworker needs a knee replacement. The doctor told him he needs to lose weight before he’ll operate. He is 100+ lbs overweight. It seems to be pretty common practice for doctors to insist their patients lose weight. I don’t believe this is a decision made at the insurance carrier level.

[Vinnie]

"We have limited resources and we have to make sure we are using them to best effect. It's sensible to use that money where we know the treatment is going to work."

There is Universal Healthcare in a nutshell.

A snotnosed government worker deciding whether you can get healthcare.

No Thanks

[John Jorsett]

Seems to me it’s more the fact that some circumstances, by their very nature, make some medical procedures either prone to failure or prone to the development of secondary problems.

Treatment is being denied based on a patient's behavior in causing his/her problems, so fairness dictates that all voluntary behavior should be treated the same. Take intravenous drugs or engage in unsafe sex practices and get AIDS, ride a motorcycle and get your bones broken, climb a mountain and snap your spine, any unnecessary risk should lead to denial of government-provided treatment if that's the standard.

[Stoat]

 

Very interesting research.

Thank you, but you can most likely do far better yourself, as I got that quotation after only about 30 seconds of searching online.  A more time-intensive search will provide much better information.

I can only imagine that the quote of $4000 to $6000 is only for the actual hip. It's the extras that mount up - anesthetist, post op. care, hospital stay; pain meds. etc.

If that's true, then the company posting those figures is nothing more than a pack of liars and thieves, which of course may be true.

I think there is at least one zero missing from that figure of $6000.

Let's hope not!  A hip replacement without complications shouldn't be "that" bad.

However, if it is correct, please share your source as I have a friend about to have both hips replaced and she would love to have the jobs done for $12,000.

I posted the link to the source along with the other data, but here it is again:

Hip Replacement Surgery FAQs

This company appears to be dedicated toward helping overseas patients gain medical treatment in the USA, (which is part of the context of the original article posted) and so they might not be set up to assist a resident of the USA.  Asking them will never hurt, however. Good luck to your friend (and yourself!) :-)

[Churchillspirit]

Many thanks.

[Still Thinking]

So I assume since the system has opted out of treating smokers and fat people, that smokers and fat people can opt out of paying the taxes that fund the system? No?

[Still Thinking]

Or some type of cranio-sacral inversion disorder.

[Still Thinking]

What kind of insurance do you think these obese people would have qualified for in the United States?

They might have trouble getting individual coverage. If they got a job which provided insurance, I believe it's still rare though becoming more common for individuals to be refused or their employers charged higher premiums for specific risks.

IMHO, you can't sell insurance, which is intended to pool risk, and then refuse anybody with a risk. Then you've failed to provide value, because everyone you're willing to insure loses money by being insured and would be better off paying out of pocket.

[Stoat]

So I assume since the system has opted out of treating smokers and fat people, that smokers and fat people can opt out of paying the taxes that fund the system? No?

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that if I were you....I'm still waiting for parents of homeschooled children to be allowed to exempt themselves from paying taxes that go to the Government schools, since they are not deriving a benefit from that Government 'service'   :-)

[Still Thinking]

Scool taxes are a little different, because they are paid by people eligible to use the services as well as those who aren’t. But, it does seem like home schoolers should get the same money from the state that the district would get, or a tax credit for the same amount (including the land and building value, which districts receive free).