I think it is important during this often heated debate about our health care crisis to take a step back from the rhetoric, the name calling and the labeling, and to look at the facts on the ground. There are two crises facing America with regard to health care.

The 45 million uninsured Americans is just a part of the problem. No doubt, these are the Americans who have it really bad. They represent roughly one in six of us. They are the Americans who live with the fear that they or even their children cannot get cancer treatment should they need it, or control diabetes through medication should the need arise.

The second group is the rest of us. Our health cost has doubled in the last 10 years. The small businesses for which we work, crippled by balance sheets loaded with health care costs, have faced tough choices including layoffs and reduced health benefits. Health costs as a part of labor costs have motivated large companies to move jobs overseas where such costs are cheaper. And the self employed are having a harder and harder time making ends meet. Our benefits are shrinking and they are costing more.

What’s worse is that the two problems are fueling each other. Layoffs move some of us from the insured category into the uninsured category. And the uninsured, not simply willing to die in the streets, go through some of the most expensive and inefficient means to obtain health care, such as emergency room care. This cost is passed on to those of us with insurance through increased hospital cost. And the cycle repeats itself.

To put it simply, our system is broken. It needs to be fixed. It needs to be more efficient. It needs to cost less. It needs to be available to all Americans. To simply maintain the status quo is unacceptable. Maintaining the status quo is as unacceptable now, as it was as far back as when Harry Truman tried to make health care available to all Americans in the post-war era.

The question is not "Do we need health care reform?", the question is "How do we reform the health care system to make it less expensive for everyone, and available to all of us?". Too many right-wing talking heads, Congressional Republicans and town hall protesters are answering the first question. But President Obama is asking the second question. And he is asking everyone, of all political stripes to be a part of the answer. And he knows that to get the best solution, the best reform, he needs to get everyone’s ideas involved. We need conservative voices, liberal voices, budget hawks, bleeding hearts, insurance industry representatives, health care providers, senior citizen groups, labor, big business, and everyday ordinary tax paying Americans. We need everyone in the room with the singular purpose of making our health care system less expensive for everyone and available to all of us.

What we don’t need is for political opportunists to use this debate as an opportunity to drive a wedge into the American people. What we do not need is petty name calling, labeling and fear-mongering. What we do not need are lies an innuendo. What we do not need is the seething partisan anger that would rather see a President fail than a Country succeed.