Readers React: The solution to high-deductible health plans: Medicare for all
To the editor: Employment-based health insurance used to be a good deal. Not anymore. And every year it’s getting worse. (“The devastating ripple effects of high-deductible health insurance,” letters, May 7)
Just ask young adults who live in the “gig economy” with off-and-on jobs that rarely provide any health insurance. Or ask those in middle age, often with children, who are forced to change their own and their children’s doctors because employers change their insurance plans every year or two. Or ask those a bit older — or younger — who lose their jobs and their insurance completely.
It’s not just that “soaring deductibles and medical bills” are pushing Americans to the financial breaking point, but also that both employment and health insurance have become frighteningly unreliable.
There is, however, one group in our nation that has affordable and reliable health insurance for as long as its members live: seniors with nonprofit Medicare.
It’s not perfect, but we can improve and expand Medicare to cover everybody — for everyone’s full lifetime.
Dr. Robert Vinetz, Los Angeles
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