HELENA — U.S. Sen. Max Baucus made some of the first floor statements Monday as the Senate began its lengthy debate on a 2,000-page health-reform bill, saying it’s critical for Congress to act now to reform the nation’s health care system.

“Without reform, costs are guaranteed to continue to skyrocket out of control,” the Montana Democrat said. “Without reform, our nation’s long-term fiscal picture is almost certainly unsustainable. … and without reform, millions of uninsured Americans will continue to suffer.”

Baucus, a key figure in crafting the health care bill, also said opponents are spreading misinformation about the reform proposal and sought to counter its critics.

Arguments that the bill will lead to a government takeover of health care, bust the federal budget and raise taxes are all false, Baucus said.

“The health of our nation is depending on us,” he said in his floor statement, delivered Monday shortly after debate began. “The health of our economy is depending on us. … I am confident that we will soon enact meaningful health reform that will lower costs and bring quality, affordable coverage to millions of Americans.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is the bill’s chief sponsor and led off Monday’s debate, which began after months of political jockeying to bring the bill to the Senate floor.

Reid’s bill is an amalgamation of bills crafted by the Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, which is chaired by Baucus.

Baucus, who has spent much of his time on health care legislation this year, was among the first senators to speak on the bill Monday. His staff said he will be managing the bill on the floor along with Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who chairs the Senate Health Committee.

Debate lasted until about 6 p.m. Eastern time Monday and will resume today. The Senate will be taking time occasionally to consider other matters while the health care debate unfolds, such as judicial nominations to the federal bench.

Baucus didn’t speak directly with the Gazette State Bureau on Monday. When asked for his evaluation of the bill’s prospects, Baucus said through a spokeswoman that he is “confident that the Senate will continue to move forward with meaningful health care reform.”

Baucus invoked former President Theodore Roosevelt in his opening remarks, saying the Republican’s 1912 platform (when Roosevelt ran as a third-party candidate for president) called for adopting a system of “social insurance” to protect people against the “hazards of sickness.”

He then launched into a lengthy defense and description of the bill, which would extend health coverage to millions of uncovered Americans starting in 2014, by expanding public programs or by requiring them to buy private health insurance and offering subsidies for some to help them afford it.

Baucus also claimed that reform will lower health care costs and make insurance more affordable, by “ending abusive practices by insurance companies,” lowering costs for small businesses through tax credits and other steps, and spreading the risk of health care costs across a wider pool of the population.

The bill also will lower health care costs by changing payment incentives to reward quality health care, rather than quantity, and by investing in preventive measures that can help prevent chronic disease, he added.

Baucus emphasized that without reform, health care spending will continue to increase and Americans without health insurance will suffer and die, citing a recent Harvard University study that said lack of health coverage leads to 45,000 deaths a year.

“In the greatest country on Earth, no American should die simply because they don’t have health insurance,” he said.