Life in those United States -- Medicare edition

From the Washington Post --

In the drone of numbers that often accompanies discussion of the fiscal cliff talks, it’s easy to forget that the decisions made in them could directly impact the lives of hundreds of thousand of people — in some cases profoundly. Raising the Medicare age is one area where this is particularly true — and Merkley [a US senator] spelled out the human dimensions of such a decision in a particularly vivid way.
“I do a lot of town halls,” Merkley said. “I can’t tell you how many times someone will come up to me and say, ‘Here’s the thing. I’m 61, and I have these major health problems. I don’t have insurance. I’m praying I make it to 65.’ The idea that we’re going to take all these folks with diseases setting in as they get older, and move them two years later? Absolutely unacceptable.”