No Knee Surgery if you are fat

Well it is starting to happen. The UK Healthcare system is beginning to discriminate for behaviour.

CAROLINE MALLAN
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

London—Britain's cherished universal health-care system has started denying treatment to fat people.

The first official move to refuse surgery happened last month when a local health authority in Ipswich, northeast of London, announced that obese people would not be given hip and knee replacements.

The move, which has been met with both praise and condemnation, comes amid a story all too familiar to Canadians — hospitals facing cash shortages at a time when the population is both growing and aging.

Dr. Brian Keeble, head of public health for Ipswich, acknowledged that while the added risks of hip and knee surgery on obese patients were a factor in the move, so was the reality of limited resources.

As I carry my logs down to the basement, I can feel my own knees crumbling. A load of 30 pounds of wood really makes a difference. So what about my own excess load of 30 pounds? If I weighed 30 pounds less my creaky knees would be fine. Is not my weight the first issue in helping me have better knees? How would having surgery help when I am 30 pounds overweight. Why should I tie up limited resources when my knees are a function of my weight?

I think one of the myths of universal healthcare is that I can behave any way I want and still be entitled to treatment. I only have to take the pill or have the surgery. Nothing is required of me in terms of my own behaviour. The reality is that today much of what is treated by the healthcare system is driven by behaviour. So the medical treatment is only a band-aid delivered at great cost that will do nothing. Worse it prevents other work such as more public health that does make a difference. Worse it will crowd out most of government spending.

The trend is clear. If we insist on having a public healthcare system - rationing will increase. Now it is wait times. Soon it will be a push back on behaviour. Smokers - now is the time to give it up. Soon you will be penalized by the system.

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