Congress has chance to fix health-care crisis

The Democrats have retaken control of both houses of Congress after more than 12 years and now have the unique opportunity to make finding a solution to the health-care crisis their own.

And they may have some help from some unlikely sources. Just two weeks ago, a coalition of health-care insurance payers offered a proposal called "America's Health Insurance Plans."

That plan would blend certain aspects of a universal health-care plan favored by Democrats, and which some Republicans have also favored, with some other industry offerings designed to begin the process of providing health-care coverage to the nearly 50 million people in our nation who don't have it. Of that 50 million, more than 80 percent go to work. The proposal, while short on specifics, does telegraph a willingness to create a plan that would provide coverage for all uninsured children within the first three years and then for all the uninsured adults.

There's much work to do, as it only addresses one aspect of the health-care crisis, albeit, a critical aspect. That critical aspect is the lack of health insurance coverage at all for nearly 50 million Americans. The other part of the equation is the increasing lack of affordability of health-care coverage and the contributions that working men and women are required to make to keep the coverage they have.

Chip Gerrity

president

New Jersey I.B.E.W.

Hightstown