I'm 38, so not an old codger just yet, and I support this legislation. Medicals are still required for commercial aviation, and apparently anything larger than 6000lbs. As far as pilots not having a medical being more dangerous than pilots who do, you are more likely to have an accident in your car driving to the little airport than be involved in an accident with a pilot in an airplane with out a medical. Further, I would think that this will make aviation safer in some ways as pilots who are flying anyway (ie, pilots who do not have their 3rd class medical and continue to fly) will now be more likely to comply with biannual flight reviews and continuing aviation education, where they might have been holding off on that specifically because they feared being caught previously.
I tend to put a lot of faith in the ability of the individual pilot to make a judgment call on whether they are safe or not to fly. If someone thinks that having a medical certificate some how keeps a pilot wearing a neck brace (or any other illness or injury) from acting as the sole manipulator of the controls, he is sadly mistaken. It is the pilots judgment which keeps him or her from flying.