Smokers and the NHS?
Question:
Should there be a smoking insurance that covers this that they should have to take out (just like car insurance)
Answers:
Why shouldn't they be entitled to free NHS treatment? Paying your tax & NI contributions is paying for healthcare.
Smokers are drug addicts, like alcoholics & people addicted to illegal drugs, so if you apply this strategy to smokers you have to do it to anyone who does anything remotely bad for their health.
You cant guarantee that peoples illnesses are due to certain aspects of their lifestyle - eg people can get lung cancer without ever touching a cig & some cancers cannot be prevented.
I, personally have never smoked, my parents however have & they have had chest complaints - in fact my Dad died of lung cancer!
If the government did what you're suggesting then people, like my Dad would be refused treatment & therefore left to waste away & die a long agonising horrific death - which is an infringement of their human rights & a manner in which you wouldnt let an animal suffer.
Pure & Simple - you pay into the health service & you should be entitled to help from it!
Other Answers:
Shut up you ex smoker, You can get lung and all kinds of cancers without ever touching a cig, People like you make my asss itch
Definitely should be more for smokers to have insurance. Why should I pay more for people who are deliberately harming their bodies?
Yes of course they should smokers pay there taxes too
I understand your point, but in fairness there are plenty of other ways to damage yourself, from dangerous sports to attempted suicide. You can't discriminate against a particular group. There is de facto smoking insurance. It's called high taxes on tobacco! PS. I don't smoke.
yeah but then what about all the drink related hospital admissions. Try your local casualty at about 12.30 on a Friday night.
Then theres the suicidal and the self harmers do we make them pay too.
the list goes on people who participate in dangerous sports
drug abusers etc etc etc
in short it wouldn't work
nice idea though.
sure....lets not stop at smokers insurance...lets have sun-bathers insurance because of the effects of the sun & lets have beach-goers insurance, because they could be eaten by a shark....and SIDS insurance for every infant born & caffeine insurance for people that drink too much soda....don't forget a special athlete's insurance because they get hurt so much & lets get special insurance for people that live close to pollutant-causing factories
I'm gonna have to agree with bentworth. I mean, we all know that smoking is a heavy contributor to various cancers, but it's not the ONLY reason.
Personally I think selective health care isn't the way the NHS should go and we should make emergency and basic care free and everything paid for either by insurance on a sliding scale depending on income IIRC the french use this system. If you a going to be selective about NHS health care I think insurance would be the fairest way but you would need to charge everybody who damages their health on purpose such as alcohol, obesity and a similar scheme for people who take risks such as or motorcyclists, people doing extreme sports
Yeah, and people that insist on eating fast food should have to do the same thing. You can't just single out one group of people.
what they should do is use the tax from cigarettes and tobacco to build hospitals for smokers only then see how long your nhs would last you idiot if smoking or passive smoking causes cancer then why dont we all have it or do you just believe everything in the papers thats written by some health freak next you will be telling us vegetarians dont die drink is the biggest cause of death in most countries so why dont you ban that is it maybe you like a drink.How many people were murdered,raped,abused,knocked down or mugged last year by someone who had too much to smoke
no they shod,int as the government rake in 4 times more tax on cigarettes than what they spend on people with smoking related diseases
well i don't see a problem with your idea but then will they stop taxing our wages and drop the tax on tobacco doubt it
I guess it depends on whether you think fat people, alcohollics or drug addicts also deserve treatment. Sports fanatics - do they deserve to get treatment if they bust a knee or something playing sports? How about children who have mumps because their parents chose not to give them MMR. How about Viagra? Should that be available on the NHS just so some old guy can get his rocks off? The thing is where do you stop... smoking is an addiction which is very easy to start and very very difficult to stop. Remember - addiction is in itself an illness and smoking is certainly not the only very stupid thing that people do in their lives that risks their health. Are you going to exclude all others too?.
The problem is that if you start being exclusive on one thing then you need to be exclusive on others and then where does it stop.
And finally, if you pay into the NHS then why not? or are you also suggesting that smokers don't have to pay their NHS contributions?
Where do you think the money has been coming from to keep the NHS in business?.
from the tax taken from smokers pockets.
Perhaps none smokers should be made to pay extra towards their healthcare.
Don't be so quick to moan about the cost of caring for smokers,
they have been paying much more than their fair share for years.
They have more right to treatment than non smokers.
one miffed ex smoker
Do you smoke ? don't think so , does that mean fat people should have fat insurance sounds silly to me so i say no and i am an ex smoker very easy to start not so easy to quit !! The NHS should invest more into helping people to quit and the government could do a lot more to prevent kids from starting we know they get billions in revenue from the sale of cigarette's!!!
no why. then if you think like that how about all the drink related illness if i smoke before i get in my car i don't think il hurt anyone. but what about all those people every year that go out and drink and drive with all the problems that brings through accident's no drinking OK or but drinking cause's more problems than anything look around you ?
i am a nurse for the nhs and i have to say that smokers get penalised to much, when you have a drug addict come in and have no intention in giving up the drugs, and they take up a hospital bed and have a strong dose of methadone all on the nhs, so instead of picking out the smokers why don't you turn your attention on people who really waste hospital resources you obviously don't know that much about it
Theres no such thing as free nhs health care if you go to work. I think all smokers should get "free" health care if they pay N.I. If smokers cant get it free then what about... the obese, sunbed users, drinkers, drug abusers, The list is endless.
what about drinkers,people who go skiing,fell walkers who get lost on the moors and injured ,mountain climbers,drug addicts etc etc....they all risk theyre lives ,smokers are the highest tax payers in the country,perhaps they should be able to say dont use my money for nhs treatment for the likes of people like you!
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