Footing the bill

America doesn't have full-blown socialized medicine, just yet. Oh, we've been headed down that road for more than 40 years, piecemeal, but the conversion is not yet complete.

And as the government has come to play a larger and larger role in our economy's health care sector, it is no coincidence that cries have grown louder for restrictions on individuals that would have been unthinkable little more than a generation ago.

It is now illegal in some places to smoke in a private vehicle if children are in the car. It is only a matter of time before such regulations are applied to private households -- or tobacco is banned outright.

Some health care professionals now call for a tax on fatty foods. Lawsuits against McDonald's or Burger King or Wendy's will soon become commonplace. Would it be so unthinkable today that government restrictions on individual dietary choices are just around the corner?

All of these infringements on individual liberty are usually justified with a happy face. After all, men and women who engage in unhealthful behavior cost "society" money in the long run through higher medical costs -- thus, once "society" has socialized medical care, it has an interest in restricting individual choices.

Take the case of John Nuttall, a 57-year-old British man who broke his ankle in three places two years ago. When he went to the hospital in 2005 -- his health care was "free," of course, thanks to Britain's socialized system -- he decided against surgery and opted instead for a cast.

But when the ankle didn't set, he limped back a few weeks later and requested the operation, according to the London Daily Telegraph. No go, the doctors said -- unless Mr. Nuttall gave up smoking.

Two years later, Mr. Nuttall remains in pain, according to the newspaper. He hasn't been able to kick the habit, so the hospital won't fix his ankle. "I want to warn other smokers," he told the Telegraph. "We have paid our National Insurance stamps all our lives and now we are being shut out of the NHS."

A spokesman for the hospital trust told the newspaper the demand is reasonable because "smoking has a very big influence on the outcome of this type of surgery."

Really? The ankle bone is connected to the ... heart and lungs?

Mr. Nuttall's tale is anecdotal, of course. But -- like Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards' proposal that Americans be forced to have regular medical checkups -- it once again highlights how under a system of mandatory "universal health care" we can expect a steady erosion of our personal freedoms and individual rights.