the govornment is DISGUSTING.
If Brown got cancer i'm sure the rule would change if he was suddenly short-changed.

Jane, London,

Mark from Rugby asked:

Only one question for Labour, HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?

I ask:

WHEN WILL YOU GO?

Mrs John Baxter, Vienna,

How come this policy doesn't apply to dentistry then? if you are lucky enough to find an NHS dentist you can have treatment on the NHS but choose to pay for better quality or more discrete materials (ie white fillings). And what is the prescription charge anyway but payment towards drugs.

Donna Walker, Effingham, England

Wow!
Don't go to Dr Salt!

David Kay, hemingford,

What would happen if another governmental near-monopoly acted the same way? If The Post Office refused to accept letters from someone who had used DHL for an important document. The idea, is, of course, prepostorous. Thankfully this government's days are numbered. However, their damage will last

Bill Peter, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

If the NHS lottery can not help, why is it wrong to spend your own money to treat yourself ?

Following this Labour logic, will parents who read to their children, have their childrens state lottery education stopped ?

Would Johnson stick by his principles if he were in a similar situation ? No.

roger, london,

Twenty years ago I had a patient with terminal kidney cancer. His tumor was inoperable with secondaries everywhere. A new drug, unavailable on the NHS, cost £9000. He raised the money, gave it to a charity that bought the drug. We treated him on the NHS in a 'clinical trial'. He remains cancer-free.

Dr Terry Hamblin, Bournemouth,

Useful drugs, not yet approved by NICE, are forbidden, but useless rubbish in the guise of 'complementary medicine' is encouraged. Nor only are they mean-spiirted, they are deluded.

Dr Terry Hamblin, Bournemouth,

British cancer survival rates are obviously abyssmal among the advanced nations. The citizens of the UK would be well advised to replace the sadistic, incompetent NHS with proper universal private health care schemes.

Your lives (literally) depend upon this.

Ed Sodaro, Massapequa, NY, USA

Consider all parents who have paid for extra tuition for their state educated children . If we extrapolate Alan Johnsons logic does that mean they will be denied further state education or will they have to pay for it?

Samit, eastham,

M Dunn, London
Thank you for your explanation and apologies if I have maligned you.
However, I do think that many people, myself included, are furious with this Govt for a multitude of reasons, this one merely being the latest.
There is no excuse for terminating people because they want to live.

Adrian Walthoe, Brighton, UK

I have colorectal cancer with metastatic spread, but am fortunate to have had excellent support and care from my local hospital. I also am fortunate to have membership of private insurance paid for by my self. I have worked in and paid health subscriptions to NHS but am now deprived of care. Fair?

John Galway, Armagh, N. Ireland.

Yet more proof that the self implosion of the 21st century NHS is due to the managers and politicians working at the top, rather than the actual people that look after us when we are sick.

Matt, London,

We already have a 2 tier NHS. What about the postcode lottery, or the fact that prescriptions are free in Scotland/ Wales. Are these people that have been refused NHS care going to be given a refund on their Nationa Insurance/tax contributions?

Fiona, Manchester,

Nu Labour have exposed their Stalinist core for all to see.
Woe betide anybody who dares to try and help themselves, no matter how ill and desperate they may be.
The State knows best, anyone who thinks otherwise must be punished.

jasper, chelmsford,

If people are advised to pay for medication privately it means that the NHS are NOT providing the best treatment available.

It is scandalous to punish people for their wish to have the best possible treatment but to let a person die - those responsible should be charged with murder.

Tam, Frankfurt, Germany

No mention of Human Rights legislation--it would be interesting to see someone accuse the Government of denying them the right tio live.

D.Henry, Edinburgh, Scotland UK

Labour policy, Labour Failure, no accoutability. Alan Johnson is not accountable yet he is happy to spend our tax payers money providing for increased costs to a unionised quango! Oh, the glories of the NHS just what has really improved over 11 years of Labour waste!

steve tea, manchester, cheshire

Adrian Brighton. I am not saying top ups are wrong. I'm saying that it has been around for years. The Tories never changed it and - once again everyone - last week David Cameron refused to say he would allow private top ups,

That is why I am so suspicious about some of the anti govt comments here

M Dunn, London,

Has any one considered the cost of medication to drug addicts. Surely these people buy illegal drugs and then expect ther NHS to treeat them. The situation is no different to these desperate sick people. There seems to be a bottom-less pot in finding substiture drugs and care at no cost to the users. Many have never c ontributed to the NHS by way of government taxes, this is just another example of the government kicking you when you are down. The cancer patients should be praised that they are willing to spend their hard earned cash instead of relying on the NHS and they should be offered every available help.

Norma Tilley, Wolverhampton, UK

It really is time we stood up to these faceless and heartless people and told them that it is OUR money which they are glad to throw away on plush offices for the Admin staff but are reluctant to spend on patient welfare. Where's my guillotine?

Keith, Grantham, England

This Governments position is inhumane and really is the final straw as regards any credibility. Contrast what state the Country is in now with how it was when Labour first came to power and one can see how very very badly we have been let down.

John, Woking, Surrey

A clash of the hippocratic and the hippocrits?

Boom Boom !!

Tom, Huddersfield, England

Where does this end?

I had an operation on my foot privately 10 years ago, am I now banned from NHS treatment for life?

Daft, inhumane and thoroughly divisive.

Therefore typical of the current government.

David, St Albans, UK

We already pay for prescriptions and for dental treatment - so how is this different? In state education there are expenses we have to pay . This situation involves people's right to survive after having paid contributions all their lives!Foreign pregnant women abuse the system all the time!

kay, leeds, uk

The government are openly pursuing a position of manslaughter against the very citizens who struggling to stay alive in the face of opposition from the NHS.

The media meanwhile concentrate on David Camerons hair and some ten year old expenses.

The whole situation sickens me, roll on 2010.

Steve Ferris, Sherborbe, England

Alan Johnson shows all too clearly, (if one ever doubted it) that he and many Labour supporters are consumed by envy and motivated by spite.

Strange that the MP's in the "Party of the working man" do not apply the same "two-tier" criteria to their own way of life vis-a-vis the rest of us -------

Douglas Rolph, Dereham,

When a principle needlessly causes the death of someone it is a rotten principle. By denying treatment to these people the only beneficiaries are political theorists. If this principle is at the heart of the NHS then the NHS is rotten to the core.
This reflects badly on all political parties.

Eddie Reader, birmingham, england

Remember, all these drugs are free in Scotland - how about that for Labour equality.............

Robert, Great Dunmow, England

Ethics don't come into private health insurance either, the private companies will do anything by the seem of things to get out of paying. The Costa Del Sol Community web site has a very interesting article on Bupa and Sanitas and their claim evasion tactics.

Ceri Davies, Churriana, Spain

I despise ALL interest groups that feed of this vile socialist state from the BMA and the public sector trade unions to the quangos and MP's who serve their own interests to the detriment of the governed. Solution? Don't look to govt for answers but to yourself. That is the path to true happiness

BD MATHERS, birmingham,

Yesterday I read a report from the USA, where a cancer sufferer was denied life prolonging treatment by her insurance company. However, they were willing to pay for the medical-termination of her life.

Nu Labour is open to Nu Ideas. No doubt they would embrace the above with alacrity.

Gamini, Reading, UK

It just shows Johnson for the man he is , Cruel, heartless and totaly misguided. Only Labour would do this. Nothing about it on the BBC. It is THE worst thing this government has done. I am ashamed of the way Labour treats its people.

Johnny Norfolk, Mileham, GB

M Dunn, London
Ignorance?
I speak from bitter experience. Have you any idea how terrifying it is for you and your closest to be fighting for you life? I think not.
Understand this if you can - it is not about Politics, it is about SURVIVAL.
It is repugnant to let dogma win over compassion.

Adrian Walthoe, Brighton, UK

Totally wrong and unfair and follows the Socialist mantra of we know best and if you don't do it our way, we will punish you. This Government can't have any feet left, they have shot them to pieces.

John, Manchester,

I worked most of my life as a G.P. in a relatively deprived area of South Wales. I revered the memory of Beveridge and Bevan.
I'm now so ashamed of the Facist government we have.

Richard, ex Swansea, u.k.

I'm glad to see that almost all the bloggers here agree that the policy is stupid and misguided - though, as a few people have pointed out, it isn't just New Labour who are guilty. The main problem is the handing over of the running of the NHS to bureaucrats - both public and private.

Barry Hughes, Edinburgh, Scotland

Baroness Finlay asks the important question - can we justify using the NHS for absolutely everything, ranging from feeling unhappy, having a ticklish throat, a sprained back to treating life threatening diseases and accidents? The sensible answer is probably no but do politicians care?

ken jones, wormit, scotland

The two tier system is alive and well. My consultantsdidn't bat an eyelid at the arrangement of privately funded chemotherapy preceded by surgery and radiotherapy funded by the NHS. The NHS costs well over £100billion/year; it is just unfathomable dogma to prevent private contributions.

Beany, Norwich,

Labour has an odd inconsistency in its doctrine. It is for ever urging people to adopt middle-class values: become educated, save money, work hard, bring up children well, avoid smoking and drinking. But when it sees people who are already middle-class, it treats them like the devil incarnate!

Tom Welsh, Basingstoke,

If an IV drug abuser refuses nhs hospital treatment and tops up his own medication outside, he will be treated with proper care when he returns to hospital, say with an abscess. To do differently is unethical and criminal. Why treat cancer differently? Take this government to court on every case.

Jake, Dumfries, UK

I have cancer and can't fault the NHS treatment.
However, my dad died of cancer, and was almost killed 7vl times in the 40's fighting for freedom of choice.

We know who the fascists / Stalinist are now.
He and many others would be dismayed at the price they paid.

Just what was it all for?

Tom Taylor-Duxbury, Ludlow, UK

Diagnosed with lung cancer and secondary brain turmours I have been operated on received a course of radio therapy followed by course of Chemo therapy. I have now been told the medication that is needed to keep me alive will cost 2,000 per month I don`t have that kind of money I guess its goodbye

Ceri Davies, Churriana , Spain.

First they in effect kill our boys in Afghanistan by their lack of funding and now it emerges that people are being charged twice for cancer treatments and being killed early .They must go and go soon ...Brown lives on hype and spin and its running out for him...

mike , watford ,

In order to get around this and other criminal stupidities imposed on the NHS, my mother went to Poland in order to obtain treatment.having been estimated to have 3-6 months life if left in the hands of the NHS. She found 17 other NHS exiles there and is still alive three years later.

David Hobbs, Guildford, UK

I just do not understand the NHS and their "gurus". They are pr epared to spend £billions on statins when it is well publicised that 99/100 WILL NOT BENEFIT. They are prepared to spend £1+billion in frantic spending to dumb down "savings" of £1.7billion. Yet they refuse to pay expenses for people

M. Cawdery, ramone, Co. UK, EU.

As a terminally ill 44 year old mother of 2 (my youngest being 4 years old) I am disgusted with the government's stance on this. What right do they have to refuse life prolonging drugs. I have been a life long labour supporter all my life but would ask everyone to lobby MP's on this matter.

Elaine, Ipswich,

It is utterly cruel to implement such a callous policy when someone is at their most vulnerable! The labour government needs to show the public that they are able to empathise with their problems.

Kim Domnick, Torquay, UK

Alan Johnson is putting his liberal minority 'equality' ideology before the lives of innumerable desperately ill members of the public..

Johnson should now undergo citizen's arrest and be prosecuted on charges of crimes against humanity. If convicted, he should face life in prison.

Terry, London, UK

70% of immigrants have expensive to treat conditions such as HIV aids, TB and hepatitis C. No wonder there is no money left to treat the indigenous population.

Patricia , Ipswich, England

Cancer is a ethical diease. Once you got it, your life would be awful. I think doctors should stop their issue. Keep cooler and do some effective things for the patient taken with cancer.

cristiano, Wuhan, China

So people can take any drugs they like (heroin, cocaine, nicotine, alcohol etc) and the NHS will treat them - unless, of course, they privately buy a drug their doctor has recommended. What a very politically correct and life-threateningly stupid idea from our malign and misguided nanny state.

Tony, Saffron Walden, UK

Where was the public discussion of this policy before it became law? Or is this yet another example of government by stealth which has been elevated to an art form by the present group of despicable people who call themselves politicians. The lunatics really are in charge of the asylum.

Grace Grant, Invergarry, Scotland

Withdrawing all NHS treatment just because a patient had the audacity to wish to take an additional drug bought privately smacks of the worst kind of revenge taken by petty bureaucrats and officials. Anyone with this kind of twisted mentality should be kept well away from the health service.

Chris K, Cheltenham, UK

Why do we have to pay for anti-malarial drugs required for tavel to endemic countries >? I know of numerous examples of travellors risking malaria rather than fork out money for drugs.

And guess who pays for their tteatment if they develope malaria on return.

Doesn't make sense,does it ?

Abdul, DArlington, United Kingdom

Some really pathetic reactions here. This policy dates back to 1948. The Tories never changed it in 18 years of government and David Cameron this very last week refused to say he would allow private top ups.

Ignorance is not a virtue - please hide it away.

M Dunn, London,

The sheer spite, malice and downright nastiness of this Nu labour shower is breathtaking. I look forward to the next election when we can get rid of the whole rotten lot of them. Furthermore, I would like a thorough inspection oft the books to find out what fiddles they have up to in power.

Pete, Lincoln, England

The sooner this stinking Government is defeated, the better off we will all be.
They treat the people like dirt.

mike rigby, blackburn,

Evil, evil Labour Party, Alan Johnson is quite literally sacrificing defenseless sick people on the alter of political dogma and class envy.

Only one question for Labour, HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?

Mark, Rugby, UK

Sometimes I get the feeling Labour are doing everything they can to lose the next election!

Arthur, Newcastle,

Contrary to refusing help to people who buy their own drugs the NHS should be glad. It's just another case of British (English?) bloody-mindedness .. you'll do it our way (which is to do without and, therefore, die sooner), or not at all.

alice hudson, quimper, france

Unbelievable that while women are getting UVF treatment free on the NHS, people are dying because they cant afford to buy drugs

john, bath,

Having had cancer under Blair, I can confirm that I had to do everything poss to survive.
It's enough to be stalked by the Grim Reaper, without having to contend with Nu-Labour dogma. My experience of the NHS was dire until I got into the Royal Marsden.
This policy is an affront to human decency.

Adrian Walthoe, Brighton, UK

Utterly disgusting. Absurd to do this to people on an "equality" idea. What about working class people who sell their house just to get new, private drugs that may help them survive? You dont have to be rich to try all you can to survive. This policy is an insult to tax payers who PAY for NHS anyway

alex, Milan, Italy

There is nothing ethical about the NHS.

Tim Skinner, Newbury, UK

Doctors practice humanity, politicians follow political dogma. As health minister Alan Johnson should work out his priorities.

Simon Marshland, Bath, UK

Perhaps if we stopped newly arrived immigrants from getting the full range of free health care, we could afford to treat our own citizens who have paid in all their working lives

sarah , radlett,

Private medicine, in all its forms, should be abolished.

Dr. Patrick J Salt, Walsall, UK

I would have thought that the NHS would welcome people who are prepared to pay for their treatment twice having paid tax and also prepared to pay again from taxed money. Rather something to be encouraged.
The Government don't discourage Private Pensions!

Vernon Cooper, Yeovil, UK

People from throughout the world use our health service with the blessing of Nulabour, but you dare show that you have worked and saved money and paid taxes and then your are unworthy. A Government with such twisted views and naivety it almost unbelievable.

Roger, Surrey.,

Knowing how "Brass Necked" polititions are this government will sit it out until the bitter end. The writing is on the wall for them - we desparately need a change of government. Its an absolute disgrace that people are denied the help they need. This government have disconnected from common sense!

Shaun, Solihull, UK

Jane - never mind fraud - the government could quite reasonably be accused of criminal negligence, or even manslaughter.

Martin, Newmarket, Suffolk

withdrawing treatment for cancer patients is the same as murder

Mike, Gravesend, England

The NHS was once the pride of the world's medical health systems. Now all it stands for is the NO HOPE SOCIETY and get sick and you are dead.

Len, Perth, Western Australia

Labour politicians seem to believe they can play God and re-write creation, removing any inequalities by punishing those who have more. There will always be differences in fortune. And so the government will always have more people to punish. This bunch is evil through and through.

Anthony, London, UK

Private v NHS, does this rule then also apply to those NHS staff who despite ridiculing some patients for private health care are then happy to use the private sector to top up there salaries by working for them. Two tiered indeed!.

Debra Steadman, Leicester, UK

The NHS treatment isn;t free it has been paid for by the contributions paid by the person through their life THERFORE IT ISNT FREE. Their families should take the government to court for FRAUD.

jane, London, ENGLAND

I have to question the phrase "two tier" health service used by the government. Surely a truly equal health service is impossible due to differing doctors and standards of hospitals. Also are the drugs currently used by the NHS so inadequate that the chances of survival are massively reduced?

David Sutton, Bexleyheath, UK

Incidentally, does this rule also apply equally to drug addicts who buy supplementary drugs privately (i.e. off street dealers) or is it applicable only to decent prudent people who have saved and budgeted for the security of their health and welfare - i.e stood on their own feet ?

Trevor, Ipswich, UK

Utterly disgraceful, but are we surprised by our socialist masters. Gordon Brown presides over this shower. Yet another reason to remove this criminal government as soon as possible. David Cameron we expect greater things from you. Let us hear them now.

victor, London, UK

And how much 'surplus' funds did the NHS declare last week?

Oh no, this system isn't broken at all!

John Blackley, Winter Garden, Florida

I can never remember a Government so hated by the people as NU Labour. They are not Communist, as some people wrongly assume, but are more authoritarian every day. Everything that the Labour Party has stood for thoughout centuries has been torn apart , even the NHS. Just bring on the election!

sophie smith, london, uk

This policy is shocking. How can anyone stop another human being doing all they can to save their life? Agree to give these drugs on the NHS or let people do so themselves. Dont abandon the sick in their hour of need!

John Clayton, Norwich,

It's kind of breathtakingly outrageous isn't it? Amazing to think that any government, or indeed any community, could deny a dying patient the chance to use their own money to try for a miracle. By charging retrospectively for NHS services they are making this choice impossible. I am speechless.

Mark, London, UK

The 1944 white paper set out 'two guiding principles. Firstly, that such a service should be comprehensive, with all citizens receiving all the advice, treatment and care they needed, combined with the best medical and other facilities available. Secondly, that the service should be free to the public at the point of use.

sophie smith, london, uk

Why is it so difficult for this government to use COMMON SENSE. I'll bet Alan Johnson would sing a different tune if it was someone he knew who was being denied treatment.

There already is a two tier system anyway. Those rich enough to afford exclusive private care and everyone else

John Goode, Welwyn Garden City, UK

No doubt saves money to pay for MPs expenses.

Victor Cedar, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA

Good for them. They merit our support.
What kind of warped society is it that effectively condemns a seriously ill patient to DIE for paying privately for drugs refused by the NHS , all in the name of equality of treatment above all other considerations ?
It is absolutely OBSCENE !

Trevor, Ipswich, UK

Just goes to show Labour = Evil

Stephen, St. Ives, England

Labour's politics of envy literally makes one sick!
I detest the very word Labour Party.
Communism doesn't stand well in world today.
The sooner we rid Britain of the current communist government the better we shall all be.

peterj, malvern, uk

It's not the responsibility of NHS doctors to advise about treatments not actually provided by the NHS.NHS pts.can buy whatever treatments they like in private, informing NHS doctors as necessary and appropriate without fear. Talk of charges or service denial should be shared with PALS immediately.

Mrs. Josephine Hyde-Hartley, Bacup, UK