Jonathan H. Gerard: Spreading out the cost of health care

Regarding the March 31 column “The road to single-payer health care”: The predictably pinched and selfish Charles Krauthammer did it again.

He wrote regarding health care insurance, “A 60-year-old couple doesn’t need maternity coverage. Why should they be forced to pay for it?” The cost of expensive medical care is too great to pay in full when it comes due. Like educating our children, we thus spread that cost over the length of our adult earning years. It’s like amortizing a home. We cannot pay for it all at once so we spread those payments over time.

But unlike a home mortgage, spreading the cost of our kids’ education and our own health care over the length of our active lifetime incurs no interest. We ought to be grateful for this opportunity, not resentful of it.

This story was originally published April 6, 2017 at 8:52 PM with the headline "Jonathan H. Gerard: Spreading out the cost of health care."