Free NHS treatment has been criticised for a long time and the switch to private health insurance is fast rising. While the NHS is viewed as somewhat of a flailing institution on shaky legs, comments from the Toreys and fresh comments by doctors do no good for the organisation at all. David Cameron has advocated of late that failing to follow a healthy lifestyle should lead to free NHS treatment being denied under the Tory plans. Doctors have now chimed in as well saying that NHS treatment to be withheld from patients who are too old or who lead unhealthy lives.

Cameron advocates that patients should be handed "NHS Health Miles Cards" allowing them to earn reward points for losing weight, giving up smoking, receiving immunisations or attending regular health screenings. The cards earn points in effect, which entitle services and priority. The scheme though aims to penalise heavy smokers, the obese and binge drinkers, who could be denied some routine treatments until they begin to show real changes in their bad habits.

Doctors have added fuel to the debate agreeing that sloth is not the way forward and should be reprimanded. Smokers, heavy drinkers, the obese and the elderly should be barred from receiving some operations, according to them, with most saying the health service cannot afford to provide free care to everyone. You can see where both sides are coming from. The spiralling cost of treating ‘preventable’ consequences of smoking and alcohol is negatively impacting the health industry and leading to longer waiting lines and helping people to jump ship from the NHS to private insurance providers. Obesity costs the British taxpayer £7 billion a year. Overweight people are more likely to contract diabetes, cancer and heart disease, and to require replacement joints or stomach-stapling operations with £1.7 billion is spent treating diseases caused by smoking, such as lung cancer, bronchitis and emphysema, with a similar sum spent by the NHS on alcohol problems.

The question is then really based around whether treatment should be denied because of a lifestyle factor. If it does it may impinge on the basic human rights of a patient, the decision is arguably one that should be clinical. With disenchantment growing with Gordon Brown’s regime, if David Cameron did institute such changes, the increasing number of people hopping onto the private health insurance bandwagon would shoot up ten fold.

Punishing people for their lifestyle should not be a concern of the NHS which was set up to look after the citizens of the country who elected the government, however there is a case for arguing that by forcing out people of the NHS and into private health insurance, they will have to pay for their own ailments and the consequences of not giving up smoking or continuing to drink copious amounts of alcohol-and perhaps that is what they need.