Paying for NHS treatment; Could the Lib Dems be right?

Liberal Democrat Health spokesman Norman Lamb has said people should face the consequences of their actions - particularly if they were "foul and abusive" to NHS staff, by having to pay for their treatment. It has also been suggested that pubs which continually send customers to A&E should have to pay.

I believe this to be an eminently sensible suggestion, and as such am surprised that it has come from the Lib Dems. However, I feel that we should perhaps go further than this and include drugs in the plan as well. If people start to realise that there will be financial implications as a result of their actions I feel that in this secular age we live in, it will have far more of an impact than appealing to their moral conscience not to do it again - or even do it in the first place.

I am sure that this proposal will be met with much criticism by those who feel that the whole purpose of the NHS is to provide free healthcare. But what they don't realise is that the NHS should be there to meet the needs of those who really need it. People who have no control over their illness, and who haven't brought their affliction upon themselves. People who drink themselves unconscious, or who start fights because of alcohol induced behaviour only have themselves to blame. As such, they should have to pay the full bill for their treatment.