Our health care is irrational

I'll be 65 in September, and I am getting signed up for Medicare and its drug component, Part D. I take seven prescription drugs. I shop for my drugs on the Internet and use generics for all but one of the prescribed drugs. I shop to get the best available price on refills. The total tab is about $125 per month or $1,500 annually.

Medicare, because of commercial medicine's influence in Washington, cannot shop the markets I shop for these drugs. My drugs, if purchased from sources approved for Medicare reimbursement, would cost, I am advised by my insurance consultant, $507 per month, or $6,089 annually. That's four times what I pay.

Medicare plus supplemental insurance cannot reduce that cost to a level remotely comparable to what I can do on my own by shopping where Medicare is prevented from shopping.

Many people my age and older are not computer literate, or cannot afford a computer, and so do not have the ability to shop for their drugs. As a result, even with Medicare assistance and supplemental insurance, their cost is still more than 21/2 times what I pay for the same drugs. For many that may be a prohibitive cost.

This is not a rational health care system. Lack of access to needed medications is likely one of the reasons why the United States today has lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality than the other advanced countries in the world. We do need reform.

Alfred Y. Kirkland Jr.

Elgin