I do not say “Well, you’re still smoking, so no nebulized bronchodialators, no steroids for you”; I will mention that smoking probably isn’t in their best interest at this point, but that’s the most I’d say (and often don’t, they’ve heard it and prefer smoking to living longer).

Triage isn’t care denial, it’s resource allocation, and it’s based on medical need, not moral judgments.

You complain about UK’s socialized medicine, but you work in an ER. You make life and death decisions every day. You choose to spend part of your considerable but ultimately finite (no offense intended!) brain power on deciding to help patient A first and patient B second. You do the same thing personally as the UK National Health Service does collectively.

Is there a difference?

Speaking as a guy that by now is just happy to look at the golf ball from above the green rather than from below, I’m grateful that you and guys and gals like you are around to make that decision, rather than relying on some bean counter somewhere.

Health care choices must ultimately be economic decisions. The difference between the UK and US health care is not one of fairness, but one of trust. Both systems are deeply unfair, but so is life. All things being equal, though, I want people in the trenches to make the decisions, and not faceless bureaucrats. In this the American system is (for now) far superior.

I think that is just wrong! And who decides these things and what is the cut off point? Are they talking elective surgery or life saving surgeries. So overweight people, elderly people, smoking people and drinkers have no value as human beings? There lives are disposable? Didn’t Hitler think that way?

I don’t condone all the behaviors that go with some of these people but in the mix you have got some real good people that are devalued because of a weakness. Yes there needs to be accountability but c’mon…we are talking about human beings. They are someones uncle or grandma or brother or child, etc.

Where is Michael Moore for that article?