WASHINGTON--Despite the poor economy, Congress and the Obama Administration should keep health care reform as a top priority, witnesses told a Senate Committee today.

In testimony before the Senate Finance committee, Andrew Stern, international president of the Service Employees International Union said Congressional and White House policymakers should take advantage of the concerns expressed by many in the United States over healthcare issues to enact significant reforms to the system.

"We recognize the significant challenges in addressing the economic problems of our country," he told the committee. "But we also believe we have a once in a lifetime chance to address the economic insecurity of too many Americans by responding to the urgent need to address our nation's health care crisis."

Amitabh Chandra, an economist assistant professor of public-policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, echoed those sentiments and added that the government may be able to ease the financial burden it faces through health care reforms.

"In a jaundiced economic environment where a growing federal budget deficit has just consumed another 700 billion dollars, advocating the case for health care reform may seem imprudent," he said.

But he said a few such reforms "can actually improve American healthcare while reducing the pressures on the Federal deficit."

Many of the needed reforms, the witnesses noted, are contained in a proposal put forth by committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., who himself called on the government to "walk and chew gum at the same time" by addressing both economic and healthcare issues.

"We need immediate action on health care reform," Sen. Baucus said in opening the hearing.

"Health care costs and the economy are linked: The key challenges of our health care system are high costs, low quality, and insufficient access. Those challenges have a direct effect on family budgets. They have a direct effect on American businesses and their ability to compete. And they have a direct effect on government spending," the senator said.

Another proposal to help resolve the nation's healthcare problems was also unveiled today by America's Health Insurance Plans.

"No one should fall through the cracks of our health care system," said Karen Ignagni, president and chief executive officer of AHIP. "Universal coverage is within reach and can be achieved by building on the current system."

The AHIP proposal builds on a series of recommendations the group began offering in November of 2006. The proposal is focused on the area of guaranteeing coverage for pre-existing conditions and ensuring affordability in the market for individual coverage.

Recommendations addressing other areas, such as overall affordability, accessibility and quality of care, would be forthcoming in the next few weeks, according to AHIP.

The recommendations made by AHIP include offering coverage with no pre-existing condition exclusions, establishing an individual coverage requirement and a verification system for that requirement with enforcement.

Additionally, AHIP called on policymakers to create a refundable, advance tax credit for individuals and working families, establishing equity in the tax treatment of coverage obtained through an employer or on the individual market. Also, AHIP advocated ensuring premium stability through a broadly funded reimbursement mechanism to spread costs for the highest-risk individuals.

AHIP, said Ms. Ignagni, "is responding to the concerns of the American people by offering a workable solution to ensure that no one is left out of the health care system because of their health, age, income or employment status."

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association also announced its support for efforts towards universal coverage, endorsing a requirement for insurers to offer coverage to all provided it is coupled with a mandate for individuals to obtain coverage.

"Coupling a requirement that insurers must offer coverage to everyone regardless of health status with an effective requirement that everyone have insurance would enable insurers to offer coverage to everyone regardless of their health status -- without the unintended consequence of premium increases," said Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association president and CEO Scott Serota.

This article updated Nov. 20, 10:16 a.m.

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Senate Panel Hears Health Care Urged As Top Priority

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