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It is time for the U.S. Senate to pass a health reform bill to make health care accessible and affordable to all Americans. What has become a partisan political battle in Congress is a personal struggle for health and financial security here in North Carolina.

The bill now before the Senate promises North Carolinians greater access to the health care we need, with the choice of keeping our existing coverage or choosing a new option. It will ease the stress facing North Carolinians who are worrying about whether they will have insurance or can afford their deductibles. We need Sens. Kay Hagan and Richard Burr to vote yes on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The current health care system is not sustainable. Between 2001 and 2008, the cost of premiums in North Carolina went up by 80 percent while inflation rose by 13 percent. The tremendous loss of employer-sponsored insurance during the current recession increased the uninsured in North Carolina from 1.2 million in 2001 to an estimated 1.8 million in 2009. In 2009, 21.7 percent of all non-elderly adults in North Carolina were uninsured.

The Senate health bill will provide the following for North Carolina's families: an end to the insurance industry's discriminatory practice of higher premiums for women; an end to refusing coverage for pre-existing conditions; a new open marketplace for buying insurance; new choices for insurance, including a public option free of insurance company profits; $347 billion over 10 years to expand state Medicaid and SCHIP programs for children; and $447 billion in credits for working families to better afford insurance coverage.

Reform means choice, quality and guaranteed health care for families in North Carolina.

For our senior citizens, the Senate bill will strengthen Medicare. It will provide free preventive care, shrink the Medicare drug benefit "doughnut hole" by $500, reduce the costs of brand-name medications, work directly with doctors to improve quality of care, and develop new systems to reward doctors for quality care.

The Senate bill goes a long way to help America's businesses. The bill offers $27 billion in premium tax credits to businesses that offer employee coverage. Importantly, the bill promotes shared responsibility. All Americans will be required to have private or public insurance, with an exemption for those who can't afford it. And, save for the smallest firms, employers who choose not to provide employee coverage will pay a fee to help those employees get coverage elsewhere.

For North Carolina, the Senate bill will help shore up our state budget by increasing the federal government's investment in Medicaid and the children's insurance program, both of which will be expanded to cover more families and children. The bill also reduces the federal deficit by at least $130 billion over 10 years through new revenue and by making insurance more efficient.

The bill isn't perfect, but we mustn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. The tax on high-cost insurance plans isn't fair, since it taxes workers for quality plans that they have negotiated in lieu of higher wages. The public option is too limited, and the bill needs more cost controls, such as leveraging cheaper drug prices. The House bill also jeopardizes the health of women by limiting access to reproductive health services. We urge the Senate to fix these aspects of the bill.

It's been almost 100 years since we first began talking about how to get to quality and affordable health care for all Americans. It's time we arrived, and we need Sens. Hagan and Burr to help us get there by voting for the Senate health bill.

The writers are members of the N.C. House of Representatives. Alma Adams and Pricey Harrison are from Guilford County, Verla Insko, Orange County. Insko and Harrison have been part of a White House working group on health care reform since July, and Adams is chairwoman, the Legislative Black Caucus.