Feedback | 15 May 2004

Does Nanny know best?

Of course Toby Church is right (‘More nanny, less tax’, 8 May). How did we ever come to swallow the notion that the NHS consumer has an inalienable right to receive costly treatment for continued self- inflicted poor health? Banning anything merely diverts it to an area behind the garden shed and is highly undemocratic to boot, and would clearly indicate that our politicians trust us even less than we trust them.

One answer surely lies in encouragement; the tax rebate we used to get for health insurance subscriptions, plus rebates on subscriptions for regular gym attendance, etc., should be given in the next Budget, even though they would stick in our socialist Chancellor’s craw.

Perhaps healthcare should be charged for at the point of service, and our insurance companies shaken up to provide everyone with health cover at acceptable cost as in Switzerland — one of the very few democratic countries left in Europe, with the highest living standard of any.