If Medicare was a person, he’d have to wait 12 more years to qualify for the national health insurance program bearing his name. Today, Medicare is 53 years old. Medicare was born on July 30, 1965 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the bill that led to the program protecting the health and well-being of millions of Americans.

At age 53, our personified Medicare might begin to experience hearing loss, chronic pain, changes in vision, osteoporosis, cancer, prostate issues, high cholesterol, or other health issues more common in people over the age of 50 than in younger adults. People age 40 to 59 are more than five times more likely to have heart disease as people 20 to 39 according to the American Heart Association. And as Mr. Medicare experiences more and more health issues with age, his private insurance premiums continue to increase and have a negative impact on his family financially.

An article from The Atlantic earlier this year (read the full article here) describes how the American health-care system increases inequality, citing financial obstacles:

“Many patients throughout the year pay hundreds or thousands of dollars in premiums, most often through workplace contributions. Then, at the doctor’s office, they are faced with a deductible, and they may need to pay coinsurance or make a copayment. If they have prescriptions, they’ll likely fork over cash for those, too.”

And that’s just for basic primary care for one person. Repeat that process for an entire family; add in any labs, referrals, specialists, emergency-room visits, and surgeries; and the result for even healthy families is dozens and dozens of payments, and often thousands of dollars.”

The Atlantic article also points to recent research from the American Journal of Public Health about how medical expenses push millions of Americans below the federal poverty line:

“The researchers also found that medical spending sent millions of people effectively into poverty or into deeper rungs of poverty. Seven million Americans making more than 150 percent of the federal poverty line—$31,000 for a family of three—dropped below that line if medical expenses were subtracted from their income. That meant that these families spent something like a third or more of all their income on health care. Of the 7 million, 4 million found their post-health-care income reduced below 50 percent of the poverty line, meaning they spent about two-thirds of their total income on health care. The study also found that the ACA decreased the amount of inequality caused by health-care expenses, but only slightly.”

We wish Mr. Medicare good health on his 53rd birthday. Perhaps he can scrape by another year without so much as a general physical.