Should Healthcare Entitlement Be Subjective?

Royal Economic Society Young Economist Essay Competition 2017- Alex Martins da Silva

“If you don’t look after your health, you can’t expect free access to healthcare”.

Should Healthcare Entitlement be Subjective?

Healthcare is relied on by almost everyone in their worst moments. Whether it’s a broken arm, cardiovascular condition or psychological disorder healthcare will always be there to literally stitch you up. In the United Kingdom we benefit from free healthcare along with only a handful of other countries however, is this taken advantage of? Should it be subjective to the type of condition you have? Should it be available to only those who are effectively looking after their own health? The purpose of my essay is to distinguish whether

Obesity, alcoholism, smoking and drug abuse can all lead to potential health problems. However these issues can all be avoided when taken into consideration that by eating less your are less likely to become overweight and have an unhealthy BMI and therefore won’t experience the health problems related to obesity, by not drinking excessive amounts you reduce the likelihood of damaging internal organs, by not smoking the amount of harmful chemicals intentionally entering your lungs is reduced and therefore there is a lower chance of cancers a being developed and by not abusing the law and taking forbidden substances the chance of overdosing and developing illnesses is eliminated altogether. But should this affect your access to free healthcare? In theory the health problems developed by any one of the above habits and disorders are self inflicted and were preventable and so it would not be fair to be of cost to the government or taxpayer for treatment. Additionally, a journalist called Tom Lynas produced an argument which stated “It is unfair that their (an individual whose health burdens are not self inflicted) medical treatment should be of a diminished quality because of the minority who willingly endanger themselves”. The point he is arguing is that the healthcare of an individual who did not bring illness upon themselves should not be of a lower quality because

For example, by not treating those who don’t look after their health money is saved however are all the costs avoided? Having an unhealthy population and unproductive workforce is a cost in itself and as a result it must be considered that free healthcare is indeed at a great cost to the UK however contributes towards the economy in a number of