Level 3
BettySwollocks92 wrote:
so can taking vitamin supplements and aspirin and paracetamol
Yeah, and if a doctor tells you to stop taking them and you go home and continue taking them you should be refused treatment.
If a doctor tells you to stop smoking its causing major problems and you dont, you think the person should be treated on an ongoing basis anyway?
Footballers have given up multi million pound jobs because of doctors advice, so have rugby players, wrestlers.. But god forbid you ask someone to eat healthy and stop smoking cause their health can only go downhill from this point on.
Level 3
PatC_PSN wrote:I think that smoking will quickly disappear in the UK now that they've hidden cigarettes in supermarkets. Nobody will know where to buy them!
Government ingenuity at its finest.
it was only the pretty cigarette packets that made people try in the first place! I rememeber innocently in the queue at the newsagents with my packet of sweets, the shiney lambert and butler demanding I try the silvery goodness!
I resisted but others were not so lucky 
Refusing treatment because of vices is a slipery slope IMO.
I like a glass of wine occasionally, should I be refused to be treated if I have problems? What if I were to tell you it was nearer 2 glasses most days?
I can understand people's position on these things, the doctor I spoke to when I saw my dad in hospital obviously though I was a monster - my dad was in because he was a chronic alcoholic, the doc was going through what could happen including him get better and get a new liver. I observed that perhaps it was not fair for him to be considered for one.
Level 3
Furys-embrace wrote:Smokers cost the NHS two billion a year, but dont the government get 8 billion in tobacco duty a year? If the NHS start penalising people for their unhealthy lifestyles those same unhealthy people should not be expected to pay the tax on their legal tax generating vices either.
Smokers take at least 5 billion a year directly from the NHS, they used to think it was 2 billion but they did a proper account in 2009 and it came to at least 5 billion. Add on top not just the nhs direct cost but the other costs, loss of man hours, loss of job, disability, going on dole/disability fund etc etc etc.. and they dont make any money off tobacco.
Other health companies have put smoking/obesiety/drinking at a cost of 17 billion a year on nhs and employers. Its thought it will be costing 35 billion in 10 years.
Adding alcohol and tobacco together does not cover it either, there is still a 2 or 3 billion shortfall.
Maybe all taxes should go towards treating these people, and we should be taxed more to cover it.
Obscene amounts of money.
Level 3
PatC_PSN wrote:
michelle_tabor wrote:
Refusing treatment because of vices is a slipery slope IMO.
I agree, a very slippery slope. There is no fundamental difference between a smoker (or indeed any other drug addict) and the negligence of someone who slips and falls down the stairs. Or who chooses to take the risk of playing a sport, driving a car, doing DIY etc. and gets injured. Well, no difference except that successive governments have actively participated in the process of getting people addicted, through taxing the product that causes it. It would be nothing short of hypocrisy for them to walk away from the problems they have conspired to create - more so when disguised as refusing to help people who can't or won't help themselves.
The majority of people requiring any medical treatment have probably contributed to their problem in some way through their diet or lifestyle. Going for the easy targets would be cowardly and shameful. It reveals people desperate for easy solutions, but not understanding the implications of what they are advocating.
On tobacco tax revenues, I believe the figure is closer to £10bn a year. Far more than even the wildest claims of treatment costs. And the funny thing is that if everyone gave up smoking tomorrow, that tax would have to be raised by other means. Then we'd see how many anti-smokers are really in favour of banning it.
Just stick the tax on pasties, I'm pretty sure that will go down well.
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