Replies

U.K. Hospitals to Deny Treatment to “High Risk” Patients

Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) has announced that it can no longer serve high risk patients. Anne Bullock, spokeswoman for the NHS explained, “It costs a lot of money to treat those who are really sick. The surgeries, high-tech equipment, and medications required are beyond our budgetary means.”

Bullock touted recent surveys that she says support the new policy. “When you get right down to it, the overwhelming number of people suffer from relatively mild illnesses,” Bullock observed. “These are easily and cheaply treated. Consequently, the new policy will allow us to concentrate our efforts on the vastly larger numbers of people who have less onerous ailments. The desperately sick are only a small minority. We cannot allow them to consume such a disproportionate share of the nation’s medical resources. In a democracy, the needs of the majority must take precedence over the needs of the few. Simple equity demands this.”

An estimated six million patients are expected to be affected by this rationing scheme, a statistic that Bullock argues makes her point. “Sixty million people live in the UK,” Bullock said. “Those on the outs with the new policy represent only ten percent of the population. The other, healthier, ninety percent are, thus, assured of their needs being met.”