Control of medicine means power

In a guest editorial (“Today’s health-care crisis is tomorrow’s catastrophe,” July 4) Dr. E. Scott Casselman laments that everyone is whistling in the dark rather than seeking reform of the medical system. There is much more dark to whistle through.

Because of generational changes, medical care is replacing Social Security as the “third rail” of American politics. Both major political parties recognize that the party that controls medical care also controls the levers of power. The baby boomer generation, the largest generation in our history, has perfected the art of entitlement. The boomers will have political power for the next couple of decades. It is just a fact that senior citizens vote and young people don’t.

In the world of politics there are simple answers but no easy answers. The simple answer would be for individuals to own a fully portable medical insurance policy just as they do any other insurance policy. But this will never happen.

So for the future the boomers will do what they have always done: muddle through.

Edmonds