Offer Medicare as option to all people

As a retiree, I have found that Medicare is a very workable single-payer insurance plan. Private insurance companies are not shut out - they have the chance to compete for my money because I buy the option supplemental Medicare insurance.

The government should offer Medicare as an option to all citizens, pegging their premiums to the average of commercial insurance policies, but not to exceed some percentage of their income. Why does health care have to be more complicated than that?

President Barack Obama's longtime doctor, David Scheiner, recently said: “The government never gets in my way. Forty years I've been working with Medicare, never. Who gets in my way all the time? Private insurance companies. Somehow that message is not getting across.”

Ellen McAndrews

Coralville