Costs of Health Care for the Elderly

To the Editor: Callahan (Sept. 5 issue) 1 has again urged us to confront openly the challenge of providing decent health care to the elderly in a manner that is socially affordable. What his essay does not note is that we must also confront the fact that a medical insurance scheme such as Medicare that covers only the elderly will always face financial crisis. How could it be otherwise? This population is more likely to be ill and to need very expensive care, either in hospitals or nursing homes. Only by expanding the pool of insured people to include the young . . .