1. "Systems where health care is paid for by a third-party increase the incentive for individuals to consume unnecessary medicine."

In his very weasely statement the poster doesn't cite any evidence for his claim, and he limits it to "medicine," by which I imagine he means people who see ads for prescription drugs and ask their doctor for them. That's a pitiful drop in the bucket compared to the costs of tests, procedures, surgery, meds and therapy that so many medical conditions and illnesses require.

Let's say he was using the term "medicine" as shorthand for "medical treatment." Now his statement becomes absurd, because it is not the patient who orders tests, recommends hospitalization or otherwise determines how much treatment will be consumed. It is precisely because of this lack of individual control that medical care is unlike any other consumer expenditure. You can live in cheaper housing; you can eat less or cheaper food, and wear cheap or secondhand clothing; you can take public transportation instead of owning a car. But except for preventive health care (for which insurance will not pay) there is no way to lower your medical costs except to refuse treatment.

2. To wish ill on another is a low and unworthy act. It's gratifying, though, to imagine how these posters' points of view might change if, as a result of illness or accident, their resources were depleted and their families' assets drained. It amazes me, given the random nature of life, that their lives seem untouched by tragic circumstances that devastate so many others. They post as if no loved one was born with a congenital defect, or stricken with a chronic illness, or mangled in a car wreck, or wasted away in a long, painful, expensive prelude to death. As if self sufficiency was limited to their own needs, and personal responsibility limited to their personal comfort.

But would it make any difference? For many decades I required little more than the occasional antibiotic or aspirin to keep running without problems, and my attitude towards the plight of others was no different from what it is now that I take daily medications and require regular blood tests. So why would personal misfortune cause these posters to change their minds?

You and I may be ill and in financial straits; but we were not born with the defect of the heart that makes these cold fish indifferent to the needs of others. In that regard, we are much healthier than them.

L'chaim!