@taxguru At the very least, those with self inflicted conditions should be put down the list behind people who equally need treatment but havn't abused themselves
That’s way too simplistic though. Many people who ‘abuse themselves’ have underlying factors that have never been addressed. Childhood abuse, dysfunction, mental health issues etc. So, you would actually be punishing them twice really, which is pretty poor.
What about people who play sports and ‘abuse themselves’. Some of mine played a (I would think fairly common) contact sport, and most games between the two teams someone would be carted off to hospital. We just leave people with broken bones and dislocations, putting them on some naughty list?
What about people like myself who is pretty much riddled with skin cancer? I’m old, older than the knowledge of sun and skin cancer. When we were kids our parents had us out in full sun (in a hot country, not UK), to burn like crisps to ‘toughen your skin up’ because ‘it’s good for you’. Sunscreen didn’t exist when I was a child. There was some useless thing called sunblock that was pure liquid and not waterproof so came off immediately with water (we all swam) or a lick of sweat, not to mention with the slightest grain of sand brushing your skin. The tv was packed with ads promoting tanning reef oils (you literally tried your skin in the sun, albeit with a nice smell of coconut), and we spent hours under tanning lamps and sun beds as there was zero link between them and cancer at the time. Should all of us oldies be told to get to buggery with our resultant skin cancer?
The whole premise of ‘fault’ is so ridiculous in healthcare, it has no place.