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December 2005
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| Scotch | 15th December 2005, 20:07 | |
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BBC News reports that Scotland is seeing more and more people admitted to hospital with drink related illnesses, which is taking its toll on the NHS. My question for today is: Why should illness and injury caused by alcohol be paid for by the NHS? As people who know me will be aware, I choose not to drink, and so I am wondering why I, as a future taxpayer, should have to pay for the consequences of other people drinking? People in general drink deliberately. It's no accident that they go to the pub, club or students union and purchase large amounts of alcohol with exactly the intention of getting drunk. Why, at this stage, do they cease to become responsible for their actions? Generally in law they are held responsible. Drink driving is one example where it is the drivers fault if they are drunk and they can be fined or even imprisoned. Another fantastic one I read about recently on the good old beeb about a student who was told in court that 'drunken consent is still consent', and whose rape case was thrown out. So, why don't we take this one step further, and hold people financially responsible? Not just to the extent that they pay for damage to property, but also to people. This can apply both to damage to themselves, and to others. If someone causes themselves to be ill through too much drink, then they should pay for their medical treatment, not me. They have chosen to drink and so have chosen to be ill. Similarly, if they cause injury to someone else (through drink driving for example) then they should be made to pay for their victim's medical treatment. This would have twofold effect. Firstly, it would lift some of the financial burden from the taxpayer, and mean that the NHS had more urgently needed money for caring for those who are actually ill or suffer accidents or are in the mood to give birth. Secondly, it would discourage people from drinking too much, as the financial risk to them is much greater (and they will probably pay more heed to the health of their wallet than themselves). I suggest the government take up this scheme. Insurance companies however would have to make sure their policies did not include cover for such self-inflicted harm. |
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