I have no opposition to health care reform. Tort reform, capped out-of-pocket expenses, portability – all would go far toward righting some of the wrongs in the system.

But the very clear assumption underlying every bit of proposed legislation – that our elderly population isn’t worth wasting money on – upsets me so badly I barely can listen to the debate. Of course there comes a time when extraordinary (read: expensive) measures are not called for. No one needs every test in the book, every time.

But my mother had her stent at age 81, her pacemaker at age 85. Had a government panel decided she was “outside the guidelines” for such procedures, she would be dead instead of living happily and independently in her own home.

You did mention “children, the elderly and the poor”, and for that I’m grateful. But in a society that places almost no value on the wisdom and experience of age, the proposed legislation, with its expansive definition of “elderly” and proposed cuts in Medicare, makes me very, very nervous.