Is it about time we made the drunks pay?

[bounty hunter]

Do you think people who become hopelessly drunk and get injured from fights/falling over should have to pay for their treatment? The effects of alcohol abuse on the NHS can hardly be exaggerated.

[paulham]

I have always believed this. Smoking related diseases too.
Drug abusers should have to pay back their debt in some other way.
If you are fat due to over-eating you should pay for diseases you develop as a result.

[goldencup]

And if you choose to sail out to sea on a lilo with bad weather forecast, you should pay for the RNLI being called out.

[loulou]

and if you burn your kitchen down cos you were cooking turkey dinosaurs the insurance company should not pay out.

[paulham]

Gobble-gobble.

[oldspice]

Should fat people get stomach reducations, or depressed people get an ambulance every time they take 6 paracetomol?  For every foolish behaviour, you can find a diozen reasons that seem to justify the behaviour. We're all guilty of it to some extent. I don't smoke or drink much - but I do over indulge on food at times and Iam 50 years old and several stones overweight. If I had a heart attack tonight, should I be charged for my treatment?  A huge number of people drink, smoke or over eat because of the pressure of modern life. Large numbers of people in the health profession are alcoholics - same with the teaching profession. What is needed is a better work/life balance and what is also needed is fewer people working long hours and more people given the opportunity to train for meaningful work.

[bounty hunter]

Over eating and smoking are life-style choices, which unhappily have dire consequences for your health.  I don't think this is the same as a person going out on a bender and getting rat-arsed, which is negligent behaviour - a bit like drink driving.

[oldspice]

But why do people get rat-arsed? Isn't it just the same as settling down in front of the Tv with a mega sized box of chocs? Don't the same pressures drive people to do these things? Maybe not, I'm not sure.

[paulham]

They are ALL life-style choices and as such you should pay the consequences.

[smurfboy]

What if you buy a house near a mobile phone mast and later get cancer? Should you be denied NHS treatment because you made the lifestyle choice to live there?

[paulham]

There is currently no proven link here unlike cigarettes.

[bounty hunter]

Exactly, the mobile phone thing has very little scientific evidence to back it up.

[smurfboy]

I'm just trying to make the point that it's very difficult to lead a risk-free life. Crossing the road is risky; should someone who gets run over be made to pay for their treatment because they didn't use a zebra crossing?

[paulham]

Yes but sticking a cancer inducing stick into your mouth isn't exactly the cleverst thing you can do. The risks are fairly apparent to even the dullest in our society.

[bounty hunter]

I once smoked half a cigarette when I was 16.  It made me feel ill and I've not touched one since.  I had a puff on a spliff when I was 28 and it made my legs go to jelly and my head spin and not touched one of those since too.  I had a mixed grill in a Goods lift when I was 19 and haven't left them alone since.