Letter: Expand Medicare for everyone

Friday, April 29, 2005 | 9:05 a.m.

Some people are suggesting using Medicare as a means of bringing health care to everyone. I agree, for these reasons:

There would be no requirement for Medicaid.

Companies that now provide health care to their employees would not be burdened with that cost.

Medicare would include a younger population, which requires less health care service than the existing system.

Insurance companies and HMOs would still be involved as they now are, so there wouldn't be any loss of revenue for them.

Medical administration would be less complicated, as providers would not have to deal with the different requirements of the various insurance companies.

There would probably be less bankruptcy because of catastrophic health care costs.

It must be realized that the companies that provide health care to their employees would have to compensate their employees with an increase in wages. The employees could use this increase to pay for the cost of Medicare, which would be lower than any payments to insurance companies.

BERNARD MESCO