It’s one thing for an insurer to offer incentives to their customers to improve their lifestyles and promote healthier living. It’s quite another to punish those who can’t comply with such plans by cutting their health care services. Yet, that’s ex…

(Edit)

ANYONE WHO HAS FOLLOWED CAMERON KNOWS HE'S MOVED TO THE LEFT.

(edit) HE'S AN AGW (edit).

Comment policy, please. 

Gaius, I take anything the Torygraph says with a pinch of salt. Especially since a whole bunch of the Daily Mail’s tabloid types were brought in by the Fuedal Twins. The Sunday Telegraph’s editor quit yesterday.

For UK conservative reaction to Ancrum’s essay and the Torygraph’s hard-right spin on it, see here: http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2007/09/tory-reaction-forces-clarification-from.html

Ancrum’s already back-pedalling.

The BBC also reports a backlash on Ancrum from other Tory grandees:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6978336.stm
and
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6977396.stm

Regards, C

P.S. Mind you, what does that have to do with the meat of my argument above? Gauis, did you just try a strawman on me?

You sound like my father until he died of heart related issues from dealing with stage four terminal lung cancer (he didn’t smoke, had bi-annual physicals, daily exercise and meditation, kept his weight a little below normal, ate the correct ‘healthy foods, moderate wine drinker, and often mocked those smokers and fat people for their ‘unhealthly’ lifestyles. At age 69, he was diagnosed with stage four terminal lung cancer and three months after diagnosis just two months short of his 70th birthday he died.

He made all these ‘healthy lifestyle’ choices yet became ill anyway. What was hardest for him to contend with was not the disease itself but how could this have happened to him despite all his years of ‘healthy’ living.

Weird things is my mom smoked (parents were divorced) never went to the doctor and lived six years longer than my father. When the time comes I hope I am as graceful in accepting my faith as she was in accepting hers.

The Tories have been intentionally moving to the left of Labor on a number of issues hoping to pry some seats loose, Cernig. I'm surprised you don't know that.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/04/ntory104.xml

The UK Tory’s would still allow these unhealthy lifestylers to buy their own treatment in Britian’s healthy private medical market. I’m surprised you and other conservative pundits aren’t all in favor of ending the nanny-stating of those who, by their own bad choices, create an undue burden on the state.

To call this idea “the dark side of socialized medicine” is to ignore entirely the ideological roots of the thing. I’ve noticed there’s been a trickle-down meme in US conservative circles to paint the UK Tory party as “not really conservative”. It began about the same time as the UK Tory party announced its opposition to the Iraq occupation. Coincidence, that is.

I think it’s a dumb idea too BTW – but for exactly the opposite reasons you do. Because it isn’t anything to do with any concept of socialized medicine.

Regards, C

(Oh, and Captain Ed got it wrong on Edward’s plan too)