In your Oct. 13 edition, Mr. Jared is wrong about Medicare. It is socialized insurance not socialized medicine. It is also as administratively efficient as private sector insurers.

With health costs about 17 percent of our GDP, what we should be asking ourselves is why we spend so much more per capita than other industrialized countries, including some with higher costs of living and a few with socialized medicine, and the quality of our care is only average.

Bob Thompson

Kirkland