Letter to the editor: Medicare great example of universal health care

I have been enrolled in Medicare for more than 20 years and feel somewhat qualified to report on its personal value to me and to society in general.

I have seen it evolve, and improve, from a health care program to a well-operated comprehensive "wellness" program. Medicare includes an annual physical with lab work covering dozens of health status measurements, a six-month follow-up appointment, regularly scheduled colonoscopies, EKGs and chest X-rays and, yes, end-of-life discussions with the primary care physician.

Medicare is efficient and highly accepted by its participants and the medical care industry. It stands, in my view, as a great example of how a universal health care system for America could be built, using it as the model to emulate, perhaps beginning by expanding to cover those between the ages of 50 and 65.

As most of us know by now, all the industrialized nations and many of the others have adopted universal health care. And I don't want to hear any talk about the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Norway, et. al. being socialist countries.

So, plagiarize! Plagiarize!

Letters to the editor are encouraged. Send letters to letters@tulsaworld.com.