I work for the University of Michigan and have excellent health care benefits, but even under my plan the portion paid by the employee is increasing substantially every year. For the past several years this increase has been greater than my annual pay raises. As a result, my current take-home pay is the same as it was in 2005 when the entire cost of our health care was paid by the university.

This is only going to get worse if nothing is done to reform our health care system. Even those of us with excellent health care insurance need relief.

Consider the economic imperative. Without substantial health care reform, medical expenses will overload our economy. Read recent op-ed pieces by Paul Krugman and Nicholas D. Kristof in the New York Times for expert views on this. We are already a third world country in terms of the health care we provide for our citizens. Perhaps a third world U.S. economy is next.

I have a very simple solution: Give every U.S. citizen the same health care benefits we provide for our representatives in Congress. Can we afford this? We simply can’t afford not to. Please, someone propose this. Maybe those who vote against it won’t need to bother with a re-election campaign.

Mark Z. Brahce, Ann Arbor