Recently, a reader sent the paper a letter about the possibility of a national health plan (Letter to the editor: Could ‘Medicare for All’ open the floodgates?,” Nov. 9). The writer seemed to worry that if we started to have a universal health care plan, citizens would begin to be careless with their health because a doctor would solve their health problems for free.

It seems hard to believe that people would allow themselves to get into poor health simply because treatment of their ailments would be free.That doesn’t seem like the people I know. As it is, our country has the lowest life expectancy of, among others, Canada, Great Britain and Germany. Maybe there is something to be said for some kind of better health care here.

Brian Holihan
Portland