But we must work to improve those parts of our health care system where the miracles are not as common. The part where mothers bring children to the emergency room with the flu because they have nowhere else to go. Where for the lack of a routine check-up, an illness is left untreated and becomes more serious. Where the choice is between heat and insulin. Where families lose all they have worked a lifetime for because a loved one becomes ill.

As a mother and someone who helps an elderly relative with health care costs, I understand the pressures health care puts on middle-class families. We need universal health care to reduce costs, make American families more secure, and to improve the competitiveness of American business.

Every one of our major economic competitors around the world has a huge advantage over us in health care costs. It’s significant that the president of GM has said he’d rather build plants outside the U.S. because health care costs are lower. In their U.S. plants, the cost of health care per car is the same as the cost of the steel.

One simple and immediate step must be to devote more resources to preventive and chronic care. Studies have shown conclusively that each dollar spent preventing disease or effectively managing chronic conditions saves multiple dollars later.