In the last decade, health-care costs have risen four times faster than wages, according to a new report by Health Care for America Now. Rising costs put small businesses and people in our community in a desperate squeeze.

In the past 13 years, health-insurance companies have merged with each other at a frightening rate, and now a small number of companies dominate local markets. Rhode Island basically has two insurers: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island and United HealthCare. The data in the report show how much of states’ markets are controlled by one insurance company. Indeed, 94 percent of insurance markets in America are controlled by one or two companies, a near-monopoly under Department of Justice definitions.

We need more competition. By giving us a choice of a public health-insurance plan that’s available to everyone, Congress can break the insurance industry’s monopoly.

A choice of public health-insurance plans is good for consumers. It will let us choose the plan that meets our needs the best. More competition and choice means more efficiency as insurance plans compete and prices go down. And that’s good for families and small business.

HERCHELL J. TALAN

North Kingstown