1. Because when you are healthy and not lazy the society provides you with enough of opportunities to obtain your own food, water and electricity. Some may even

1. Because when you are healthy and not lazy the society provides you with enough of opportunities to obtain your own food, water and electricity. Some may even argue than a healthy and armed individual can take care of his/her own protection (debatable), but if you're ill you're done: you are 100% dependent on the society you're a part of. And it is scary to be an ill American. 2. Yes it is barbaric to pay for medical care yet I realize that doctors need to get paid, this is why I mentioned my taxes. Perhaps I should have said that it's barbaric to run for-profit businesses that capitalize on people's illness, especially when businesses don't actually treat people, i.e. like insurance companies. 3. The decoupling of supply and demand has already happened: this is why you don't see Cuban and Indian doctors on H1bs diagnosing influenza and stomach flu for $50. This decoupling is also the reason why the same drug/med. equipment costs significantly more in US than anywhere in Europe. Lastly, I want to confess that usually I don't get much into politics but I've posted my previous comment under influence of circumstances: I am self-employed, I pay $920/mo for good health insurance for my family, yet when I got pneumonia two weeks ago, they still took $120 out of my pocket which went towards 20 minutes interacting with medical personnel and 1 pack of antibiotics. This is insane, absolutely insane.