For me, this is personal.

On July 4, 2009, my brother Eric passed away after being denied private insurance for five years. It has broken my heart and my mother’s heart, and I’m sad to report he is not alone.

An estimated 44,000 people die each year in the United States because insurance is unavailable or inadequate to provide needed treatment. If you break it down, that’s an average of 122 people who die every day because they cannot see a doctor.

And it doesn’t stop there. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are bankrupted every year by medical bills that are soaring out of control. It happened to my family, and it can happen to yours.

For some Democratic politicians, the temptation now on health care reform is simply to quit. But the benefits of doing so would be temporary. To have nothing pass, after a year of legislating, would surely be used against Democrats across the board.

But should Democrats stand firmly (and, finally, united) behind an effort to get the Senate bill passed, those up for re-election this fall would immediately start seeing benefits delivered to constituents from the most significant legislative achievement in decades.

Things like an end to discrimination against those with pre-existing conditions, fewer insurance policy rescissions, the shrinking of the Medicare “donut hole” — these are all benefits that are real and would start immediately.

While many deliverables in the bill would have to wait, passing health care reform would begin improving people’s lives on day one.

No one ever said legislation was easy — especially if it creates fundamental change. Americans have a right to expect the health care crisis to be solved by leaders in Congress. But we must earn that right daily by demanding it. Loudly. Frequently. And persistently.

Since my brother died in July, I’ve been challenging our leaders in Washington, on both sides of the aisle, to be part of finding the solution rather than exacerbating the problem.

Not next year.

Not in 20 years.

Now.

Veronica De La Cruz is a TV journalist and a health care reformer at www.EricsLaw.com. She can be reached at pmproj [at] progressive [dot] org.