In last week’s edition of The Times, you saw a column from Greg Dill, Medicare regional director, talking about Medicare coverage for cataracts.

His comments were in some cases misleading and, others, downright false. First, Medicare will only cover basic cataract surgery. It will not pay for laser or more advanced procedures such as lens replacement to correct astigmatism. I recently had surgery on my cataracts and had the highly recommended laser and lens replacement, which has me seeing at 20/20.

I can only surmise the reason Mr. Dill spent so much time talking about Medicare paying for glasses after surgery, is because the basic cataract surgery only addresses half the cure. Be careful when choosing your options and don’t expect Medicare to cover much of anything. Medicare doesn’t even cover the drops you need post-surgery.

So no matter if you are only paying the base rate for Medicare or paying the penalty because of income, Medicare is really not worth much. If I had a choice, I’d drop it in a second!