[enginous]

Also, his idea of increasing taxes will mean that even if his statement were true ("[if] people only bought half as much, they would be just as healthy"), a flat increase in drug tax would at best make this effect true on average.

Due to higher taxation, low-income individuals would have even less access to medicine than today. Keeping people away from drugs with prohibitive taxation means starving entire demographics of this component of health care.

So sure, people who have the funds to take excessive amounts of medicine may be "just as healthy." Others would be considerably worse off.

[frobozz]

Only if those low-income individuals have to pay the same for their medicine as those with higher incomes.

If the purpose of taxing medicine is to subsidise the provision of medicine to people who couldn't afford it at cost price, then that would give such people greater access.