One of my guest bloggers covered this story over the week-end, but I had just had to jump in on it anyway. Incidentally, this story comes from Britain, where they already have the sort of socialized medicine that Democrats are so in love with,

Doctors are calling for NHS treatment to be withheld from patients who are too old or who lead unhealthy lives.

Smokers, heavy drinkers, the obese and the elderly should be barred from receiving some operations, according to doctors, with most saying the health service cannot afford to provide free care to everyone.

The findings of a survey conducted by Doctor magazine sparked a fierce row last night, with the British Medical Association and campaign groups describing the recommendations from family and hospital doctors as "out­rageous" and "disgraceful".

About one in 10 hospitals already deny some surgery to obese patients and smokers, with restrictions most common in hospitals battling debt.

Managers defend the policies because of the higher risk of complications on the operating table for unfit patients. But critics believe that patients are being denied care simply to save money.

...Among the survey of 870 family and hospital doctors, almost 60 per cent said the NHS could not provide full healthcare to everyone and that some individuals should pay for services.

One in three said that elderly patients should not be given free treatment if it were unlikely to do them good for long. Half thought that smokers should be denied a heart bypass, while a quarter believed that the obese should be denied hip replacements.

Tony Calland, chairman of the BMA's ethics committee, said it would be "outrageous" to limit care on age grounds. Age Concern called the doctors' views "disgraceful".

Today, they're calling this "disgraceful," but eventually, they'll implement it. Why? Well, You probably care quite a bit about whether you get health care or not, but the faceless bureaucrats who run these programs? Not so much. They talk a good game, but to them, this is ultimately just another way to get more tax dollars and power under the thumb of the government.

Moreover, the population in Britain, like the population here, is rapidly getting older and socialized medicine wastes resources. That means there is less, not more, to go around. They've been getting around that so far by having interminably long waits for some operations, the point being that some people will have the courtesy to die before they get their operation, which will save the system money. But now, they're getting to the point where they need to withhold treatment from people, people who have paid their tax dollars into the system so that they can be covered mind you, to keep the system solvent.

Read the whole article and make a mental note of it because it's not just the future of health care in Britain, it will eventually be the future of health care in the United States if the Democrats get their way and we have socialized medicine in this country.