Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today said he hopes the progress made at the White House summit on health care gives momentum to enacting health insurance reform.

[Listen to Bingaman's response]

President Obama today brought together a bipartisan group of Senators and House members to discuss ways to reach agreement on a final bill that would: contain dramatically rising health care costs, improve the quality of health care, expand coverage to the uninsured and provide basic protections to Americans who already have insurance.

"If we take no action, the cost of providing health care will continue spiraling out of control, becoming even more unsustainable for New Mexican families and dragging down our economy," Bingaman said. "If we do not enact health insurance reform, insurance companies will be allowed to continue to increase premiums, drop coverage to New Mexicans with pre-existing medical conditions and cap care for the chronically ill."

"In my view, we have no choice but to move forward with health insurance reform," he added.

Bingaman was a key negotiator on the Senate-passed health care bill. He was one of the architects of the "public option" proposal in the Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee-passed bill. The public option is a non-profit health care plan that would be run by the federal government and financed with premiums.

"There are a lot of important provisions in the bill that passed through the Senate," Bingaman said. "But as we continue working on this key legislation, it's my strong hope that we incorporate a public option provision."