YOU'VE BEEN WARNED: BRITAIN CAN'T AFFORD A WELFARE STATE

At least, not for the likes of you

According to a report in the Independent (thanks to James Morton for the headsup), new drugs will only be made available on the NHS  in England, if they help people deemed to be a benefit to society under proposals that prompted fears elderly people could be denied treatment.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice: the English organisation charged with deciding which drugs are affordable) is due to change how it decides which drugs can be provided by the health service.

The proposals would mean Nice would have to consider “wider societal benefits” of the treatments as well as the cost and benefits to patients.

Dr Paul Catchpole, of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, told The Daily Telegraph: “It is concerning because, under the new appraisal system, cancer medicine might do less well because older people aren't as beneficial to society.

"You might have a cancer treatment for a severe disease but because the majority of the cancer patients are elderly they aren't generating wider societal benefits, they are more likely to be generating costs.

“But if you have got a medicine that gets someone back to work then you could argue, under this system, that that's better for society.”

David Taylor, professor of pharmaceutical and public health policy at University College London, said the plan was “a real threat to the public well-being and a real threat to the well-being of older people”.

“To me the whole methodology seems deeply suspect,” he said.

Sources close to English Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, told The Telegraph that plan was at an early stage and would not result in discrimination against elderly people (so you can guarantee that it will).

The draft policy is due to be put out for public consultation in the next few weeks.

First they denigrate the sick and the unemployed with the eager help of their friends at the Daily Mail, Express, Star and Sun, then they start killing them off by denying them benefits. Now it’s the turn of the old. If you aren’t of benefit to Cameron’s society, you should die and not cost anything to decent hardworking families up and down the country.

Who’s next on their hit list?

People who don't vote Tory?

I warn you. If we vote NO there's no way Scotland will avoid this. So vote no, and commit suicide at 45, because getting old is not going to be fun.

BTW, I seem to remember that Johann Lamont made a big fuss about how you could get one cancer drug in England that was unavailable in Scotland. (She failed to mention that there were examples of the exact opposite).

I wonder how she feels about this. After all, she's not getting any younger.
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I too was disgusted to see this on a Facebook page. From what I can see the DWP has decided that this guy's girlfriend contributed to her own cancer, and is therefore not entitled to any enhanced payment.

So, does this mean that anyone who has smoked, or drunk, or eaten more than they have exercised, and whose medical condition could at least in part, be blamed upon these activities... is no longer entitled to enhanced payments.

Will this include people who have been injured whilst driving (after all they could have taken the bus); have had sports injuries (they could have stayed on the settee); war injuries (they weren't called up to the forces, they chose to join)?

This is our so-called united kingdom.

But you shouldn't be surprised; remember a few weeks ago osborne told you all quite clearly that we could no longer afford a welfare state. You seriously cannot say that you were not warned.