I quote the June 5 edition of Barron’s: “Health care eats up 16.9 percent of our gross domestic product, versus 8.8 percent for the average rich country in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. No country comes even close to what Americans spend on health care each year, yet the U.S. ranks 36th in the world on life expectancy at birth.”

The solution to this is Medicare for all. What is covered to be determined by the U.S. government, with the plan then to be run by for-profit insurance companies (like Aetna) because they can negotiate low prices and prevent excessive fraud better than the U.S. government.

Richard W. Searles

Old Orchard Beach