Americans agree that the health insurance system in our country is broken. The cost of doing nothing is too great for our nation. If Congress fails to enact reform, things won’t just stay the same — they’ll get worse. That’s why we need the Affordable Health Care for America Act and we need it now.

A recent report released by the Urban Institute illustrates what happens if we remain with the status quo. In Minnesota alone, delaying health insurance reform would hit our communities hard, with the estimated number of uninsured in ten years skyrocketing to 577,000. Nationally, up to 57 million Americans could find themselves uninsured. Unless we enact changes now, those who manage to keep their coverage will pay an even heftier price over the next ten years, with individual and family spending on health care increasing by 49 percent in Minnesota by 2019. And these, according to the report, are the best case scenarios.

Saturday’s vote in the House of Representatives was a victory for working Americans and Minnesotans. Congressman Walz, along with a majority of his colleagues, chose to side with working families instead of propping up the insurance industry. They voted for a comprehensive health insurance reform bill that will provide coverage to 96 percent of Americans, lower costs, expand coverage, make insurance portable, and will reduce the deficit by $30 billion over the next 10 years.

In our district alone, according to the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee (http://energycommerce.house.gov), the Affordable Health Care for America Act will:

Improve employer-based coverage for 439,000 residents.

Provide credits to help pay for coverage for up to 160,000 households.

Improve Medicare for 108,000 beneficiaries, including closing the prescription drug donut hole for 13,000 seniors.

Allow 17,000 small businesses to obtain affordable health care coverage and provide tax credits to help reduce health insurance costs for up to 15,300 small businesses.

Protect up to 700 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs.

This legislation will guarantee that employers will pay no more than their fair share to provide insurance to employees. It includes a public health insurance option to lower costs and keep insurance companies honest. It includes a surtax on the very wealthy who can afford to pay more rather than balancing reform on the backs of working families. It also allows families to keep the health care they have instead of facing cuts in benefits and higher costs.

As a new employer, I’ve experienced the health care crisis from the other side of the negotiating table. One of my duties as President was to secure health care for the Labor Council staff. This bill offers much needed assistance to small businesses who want to be able to provide health insurance to their employees. For example, it will create a new small business tax credit that will be available for two years for low-wage, small firms who choose to provide health coverage to their workers. And it will create a new grant program to encourage small employers to develop employee wellness programs.

The Affordable Health Care for America Act starts solving problems immediately. It offers strong consumer protections for those with private insurance. It allows children to stay on their parents’ insurance plan until they are 27. In addition, it insists that insurers must submit enough hard evidence to justify all premium increases to state insurance commissioners beginning in January 2010.

Thanks to our Congressman and the three other members of the Minnesota Congressional Delegation who voted for H.R. 3962, inequities will be fixed that exist in the current Medicare reimbursement system if the bill becomes law. It ensures that health care providers are compensated for their Medicare clients based on the quality of care they provide, not how many tests they order. This new pay-for-results method will be developed by the experts at the Institute of Medicine. The bill also creates a federal study that will recommend how to remove the geographic inequities in the current Medicare payment system.

We will continue to applaud and support Congressman Walz and his colleagues as they fight for fair and effective health insurance reform. Now it is time the pass the fight for reform to the Senate. Americans cannot afford to have Congress pass up this opportunity to reshape and improve our health care system.

Laura Askelin serves as president of the Southeast Minnesota Area Labor Council which represents 70,000 union and Working America members who live and work in the 16 counties in southeastern Minnesota.