Medicare Reform

Ronald Brownstein (July 7) supports the concept of allowing uninsured workers to buy into Medicare at any age, but he should carry the logic forward. Whatever the price of a buy-in, it will surely be more than many uninsured workers could afford, considering that many of them work at relatively low salaries in small firms that do not offer employee benefit coverage. One side effect of a buy-in at any age would be to spotlight the distance still to go for universal coverage.

There is an obvious, sensible solution: universalize Medicare. End private premiums by employers and individuals, and replace them with federal taxes--just as we have done for the elderly since 1965. We know that Medicare works. Its overhead is about 3%, compared with 20% in most group plans, so much more of our health care money would really go for health care instead of advertising, promotion and bloated HMO executive salaries. Let’s go for it!

MICHAEL D. REAGAN

Riverside