Interesting that the angle that Blue Cross memo identifies as a good way of diverting attention from the issue of the need for universal health care in any civilised country (ie the fact that unhealthy lifestyles are the source a lot of ill-health) has come up here so rapidly.

To me it seems a completely irrelevant issue. Obviously it'd be great if people could live more healthy lives, and if they did that might cut down health-care costs, but that doesn't in any way mean that access to health-care isn't desperately important for everyone.

And in fact it doesn't even follow that healthier living would reduce the need for health-care - it might even work the other way round. Maybe if we all lived healthier lives we'd all live a lot longer, and that's mean a whole lot more people needing medical help in their later years.