I have a rare, debilitating disease, the treatments for which are so costly I could never afford them on my own. Luckily, we as a people, decided more than 40 years ago to institute the Medicare insurance program. We pay into it when we’re healthy and working, and benefit from it when we are sick.

Thanks to Medicare, I am able to lead a productive life, despite my illness.

Without Medicare I would be in continual pain; an invalid. Our modest savings would be wiped out and we would lose our house to debt in just a few months.

My wife and I have both worked our entire lives, paying all our taxes and fees associated with Social Security and health care. When we retired we assumed Medicare would provide us with the medical security we needed. My disease has no known cause — it just happened — just as a similar situation can happen to anyone at any time.

Medicare is one of those investments in the American middle class that is endangered by the nation’s current budget crisis. These investments would be better protected, and national debt reduced, if Bush-era tax cuts were allowed to expire on incomes above $250,000 a year.

After Election Day, Congress will convene to tackle the nation’s debt problem. Most observers are expecting a grand bargain that addresses many different spending and tax issues all at once.

My grand bargain was made when I retired. Will the promises made to all of us be kept?

Earl Morse, Waterford