Medicare Prescription

Published in Long Island Newsday -- May 8, 2002

If we really want to give Medicare beneficiaries more choices for their own health care ("Throwing Good Money After Bad Medicare Fix," Part II, April 30), we should allow those seniors who can afford to contribute to their own health care to do so. The "assembly line medicine" currently practiced under the Medicare system meets the needs of fewer recipients each year.

Why not free those willing to contribute to the cost of their own care from the bureaucratic morass of guidelines and regulations imposed by Medicare? Why not allow them to exercise their freedom of choice by paying for the services and non-medical amenities they value? Infusing private money into the system will serve to offset cutbacks on physician reimbursement and preserve Medicare for those who truly need it.

Heather Rubeo

The writer is a research associate of the Institute for SocioEconomic Studies in White Plains, NY