Monday 26 November 2012

Today's nannying fussbucket is another Tory MP: Dr Phillip Lee

****

Welcome to the world of judgemental government, to nudging with a baseball bat. Welcome to Phillip Lee MP (he's a GP too so this comes as less of a a surprise) and the punishing of people for their lifestyle choices:

Tory MP and GP Phillip Lee made a striking call this morning for patients suffering from lifestyle-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes to pay for their prescriptions as part of a larger shake-up of the NHS. He was speaking as part of a series of presentations from members of the Free Enterprise Group ahead of next week’s Autumn Statement on their proposals for spending cuts which would allow George Osborne to meet his target of having debt as a proportion of GDP falling by 2015/16.

But Dr Lee's proposal isn't for everyone with a lifestyle problem - he's not suggesting that horse riders pay for having their broken legs plastered or Sunday morning footballers for patching up their sprained ankles. No these punishments fall only on "Officially Disapproved Lifestyle Choices". And the good Doctor gives us a clue:

‘If you want to have doughnuts for breakfast, lunch and dinner, fine, but there’s a cost.’

Choose the things we disapprove of and you won't get free treatment on the NHS. That's the message from Dr Lee MP.  So Dr Lee wants a world like that proposed - and rubbished by one of his colleagues - by Katie Hopkins, the well-known former apprentice contestant.

Former Apprentice contestant Katie Hopkins argues that people who eat, drink and smoke more than is good for them should pay more towards the NHS health care they need, as she sets out her calls for additional payments for some health services.

Please Dr Lee MP, just will you shut up with your fussbucketry, with your judging of folk for lifestyle choices and leave us alone. And if you want people to pay for healthcare, say you want them to pay rather than picking on the few who choices you don't like.

....

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As the vacuous Katie Hopkins failed to point out, smokers and drinkers already pay far more in taxes than they cost the nation in healthcare.
If all smoking and drinking stopped overnight, there would be a huge hole in the budget, necessitating substantial cuts in NHS funding.
Still an apprentice, clearly.