Charles Krauthammer seems to fundamentally misunderstand [sic] health care and insurance when he says that he shouldn’t have to pay for coverage for maternity care and lactation consultants. (April 4, 11A, “Let health care customers decide what coverage they need”)

He probably doesn’t need coverage for pancreatic cancer at the moment either, but that doesn’t mean that this coverage should not be included in his plan, and we don’t share the costs of cancer treatment only among those who have been diagnosed with the disease.

Overall, insurance is typically cheaper and better when all policies include a broad range of coverages so that costs can be widely shared.

Conservatives are supposed to be the financially responsible ones, but Krauthammer seems to be largely uninformed when it comes to financial issues.

Bruce Lindgren

Independence