President Obama has submitted his budget and made completely and unambiguously clear his commitment to improving both America's health and its health care system. The next step is up to Congress. Two key Senate committee chairs, Max Baucus of Finance and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, wrote a joint Wall Street Journal opinion piece explaining that we have no choice but to move ahead. Here are some excerpts (and no, we aren't just sharing it because they quoted New America's work on the Cost of Doing Nothing...):

For decades, obtaining affordable, high-quality health care has been a heavy weight that millions of Americans have been forced to bear on their own. Increasingly, skyrocketing health-care costs have threatened the stability of families, businesses and our economy as a whole.

Some argue that repairing the health-care system now is impossible, given the urgency and high cost of ending the financial crisis. The claim is that we can fix one problem or the other—but not both. In truth, the two are inextricably intertwined: Solving the nation's health-care crisis is a fundamental part of healing our economy...If our initial efforts to restore American prosperity are ever to bear true fruit, Congress must follow up by creating a high quality, universally accessible, and cost effective health-care system.

There is also a moral imperative to follow economic recovery efforts with health reform. If Congress can bail out the nation's banks, surely we can help families get the quality, affordable health care they deserve.

Approximately 46 million Americans lack any health insurance at all, according to the Census Bureau. Nearly 25 million more don't have enough insurance to keep their medical bills from sinking them financially. Insurance premiums for a family of four can cost more than $12,000 a year. According to the New America Foundation, that cost could reach $24,000 in 2016—an 84% increase from today. At the same time, higher deductibles, larger co-payments and greater exclusions from coverage are causing families to bear more out-of-pocket costs. Debt related to health expenses is now one of the leading causes of personal bankruptcy.

Rising health costs also undermine our strength in the global marketplace. American employers pay far more for health care than their major trading partners, and manufacturers face particularly high pressure to compete internationally. U.S. manufacturers pay $2.38 an hour for health benefits, while manufacturers among our major trading partners pay only 96 cents an hour on average, according to the New America Foundation. Health-care reform is essential to spur growth and keep American businesses on a level playing field with the world.

A reformed health-care system will allow businesses to better afford to offer coverage, and empower every American to choose and purchase insurance plans that fit their budgets. Once universal coverage is reached, the positive effects will be exponential.

Both committees, of course, have begun work on health reform. Just this week Baucus invited new CBO chief Douglas Elmendorf to testify about the cost of reform. Baucus, who as Congress Daily noted has not been particularly pleased with how conservatively CBO estimates potential savings measures, urged Elmendorf to get "more creative to find intellectually honest pathways" to get to the savings. In the end, the chairman and the CBO chief agreed, "The hard decisions will be all of ours."