A case for rationing

Fellow Medicare beneficiaries: Imagine for a moment the development of a medication that would extend the life of every person over 65 who took it by one month. Imagine further that it were an established fact that if all of us on Medicare today demanded and received this medication, the costs would be such that our children and grandchildren would not have Medicare when they reached 65, because the necessary money to fund their Medicare would have been used up providing us, the current seniors, this medication.

My question is, if these were the facts, should we have the right to demand that Medicare provide us the medication? Seems clear to me we should not have such a right, and that rationing, that political bugaboo of bugaboos, must be an essential ingredient of any sustainable public health care system. We owe it to future generations to make our system sustainable, even though this means making such sacrifices.

To those who disagree, please write letters to this newspaper and argue the other side of this issue.

Alfred Y. Kirkland Jr.

Elgin