Our country is listening to the health care reform debate in Washington. As Congress decides the final content of the health care legislation, we want to bring you our perspective.

We support comprehensive health care reform and urge Congress to enact reform deliberately and in a timely fashion. Health care reform must include a public option that extends the current Medicare, Medicaid and employer-provided insurance to individuals without coverage.

This reform should reduce the long-term growth of health care costs for families, individuals, businesses and government. The status quo of our current health insurance system is unsustainable. Mayors see the rapidly escalating health care costs affecting residents, businesses and workers. City governments spend considerable taxpayer dollars to provide health care coverage to our employees, dependents and retirees and these costs affect our city's ability to provide other city services.

Investing in prevention, wellness, improving patient safety and quality of care for all Americans should be included in Congressional legislation. Our communities are focusing on wellness programs to assist employees in managing their health care needs. We know that "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."'

We urge Congress to act in a bipartisan manner as the debate continues. As mayors, we signed the United States Conference of Mayors Health Care reform letter. Mayors across the country - Republican, Independent and Democrat - support health care reform now. Please call or write your Senator or Representative in Congress to urge passage of comprehensive health care reform.

Charles C. Tomlinson, Mayor of Corvallis

Kitty Piercy, Mayor of Eugene