Deny Surgery to Obese and Smokers, Says UK Health Minister

CNS News reports:

As Britain grapples with what's been called an obesity epidemic, a leading government minister here says grossly overweight people should be denied surgery.

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt said in a newspaper interview this week she approved of doctors refusing overweight patients knee and hip surgery, until they lose weight.

Hewitt also said smokers should have to give up the habit before they are allowed to undergo surgery such as heart bypasses under Britain's National Health Service (NHS).

Overweight patients and smokers should be given access to programs that will help them lose weight and quit smoking, she said.

The United Kingdom is officially the most overweight country in Europe. The most recent health department study projected that 13 million of the 50 million people living in England - as opposed to the entire country - would be obese by 2010.

Obesity is commonly measured by what's called the body mass index (BMI) - in the metric system, a person's weight divided by the square of their height (In the U.S., multiply weight, in pounds, by 703 and divide that number by height, in inches, squared.)

Although many doctors have argued that this is an imperfect tool because it does not take into account muscle and bone mass, a person with a BMI of 30 is generally considered to be obese.

You mean socialist medicine isn't for everyone?