WASHINGTON – Nine freshman U.S. Senators today co-signed a letter to Senate Finance Chairman Sen. Max Baucus urging continued work toward bipartisan health care reform legislation and expressing concern that there has been too little focus on containing health care costs.

“The fact is that the current situation is unsustainable in the long term,” the senators said in their joint letter. “With 17% of our GDP currently being used to pay for health care services, we must get health care costs under control so we can compete and lead in the global marketplace. We believe that any final bill must include innovation, hard decisions, and incentives to bend the cost curve.”

The letter was signed by Sens. Mark Begich (Alaska), Michael F. Bennet (Colorado), Roland Burris (Illinois), Kay Hagan (North Carolina), Jeff Merkley (Oregon), Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire), Mark Udall (Colorado), Tom Udall (New Mexico) and Mark R. Warner (Virginia).

A copy of the complete letter appears below.

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