--is not limited to the subject of health coverage.

But let's start dismantling it right there.

Free-Market Myth of Health Coverage

To the Editor:

Re "Unproductive Medicare Bashing" (editorial, Aug. 20):

In urging President Bush to "stop the Medicare bashing and work to improve the system," you note that the sick and elderly "are not always in the best position to shop around" for medical coverage. You assert that "it might be possible to design" the free-market solution that the White House and its backers seek, but say only that "nobody has done so yet."

But health care isn't like other commodities. Ordinary people seldom know much about its fast-changing options. By definition a free market can exist only where buyers are as well informed as sellers.

The free-market myth is trumpeted by health-industry interests to maximize their money-making opportunities. It's also attractive to libertarians and others who believe that lower-income folks don't deserve first-class care.

You should be less reluctant to expose this fallacy.
JOHN GLASEL
Hoboken, N.J., Aug. 20, 2002
The writer is secretary of Health Care for All, New Jersey.