New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and SEIU Healthcare Chair Dennis Rivera have published a joint op-ed on the Huffington Post with a simple message: health care reform must happen this year, period.

As the mayor of the largest city in America and the chair of the largest health care professionals union in the country, Bloomberg and Rivera probably don't agree on every detail of the best way to fix health care. But they do agree that putting aside minor differences to support President Obama's plan is crucial not only for fixing health care but also for reviving our economy.

From the article:

That is why we heartily support President Obama's plan to address healthcare reform immediately and to evaluate any reform proposal against eight commonsense, nonpartisan principles: protecting families' financial health, making health care coverage affordable, aiming for universal coverage, providing portability of coverage, guaranteeing choice, investing in prevention and wellness, improving patient safety and quality of care, and maintaining long-term fiscal sustainability. These are principles that everyone -- Democrats, Republicans, Independents, mayors, business and labor -- can and should rally around.

As with all the great advancements our country has made, solving the health care crisis will not be easy. But the importance and urgency of finding a solution far outweigh the difficulty. For Congress, there is no greater imperative than fixing health care this year.