To the Editor: Re “Truth and Lies About Medicare” (editorial, Aug. 19): As a former chief executive and actuary of an insurance company that once sold both individual and group health insurance, I am particularly mystified by the effort to push Medicare participants into the individual health insurance market. I thought that we wanted to reduce — or at least control — the cost of health insurance, but individual health insurance is by far the most expensive alternative. Depending on the size of the vouchers, the government itself may save money, but the entire system will pay more. Someone has to pay for the costs of individual underwriting, marketing and so on, and those expenses will fall on the elderly themselves. You are also correct in assuming that there is likely to be anti-selection, with the healthier people going to the insurance companies, leaving the sickest and most expensive people in the Medicare plan. It is certainly true that health insurance needs reform and that President Obama is far from having all the answers, but the Romney-Ryan plan will increase the country’s health care bill with little or any of the increase going to more or better health care. STEPHEN BROWN Brewster, Mass., Aug. 19, 2012 The writer is a former chairman and chief executive of John Hancock Financial Services. -- Howard McGowan MaldenSenior