Nearly 45 million Americans went without health care coverage in 2005, the latest year for which data is available.

Employer-based health care costs are rising at more than twice the rate of inflation and wages--premiums increased almost 8 percent in 2006. The rising costs are increasing the ranks of the uninsured as the proportion of employers offering health care benefits decreases.

It is long past time for policymakers to come up with a solution for America's health care crisis.