WACO (August 19, 2009)-Rep. Chet Edwards was on hand Wednesday morning to hear what doctors and other healthcare professionals had to say about the healthcare reform bill currently before both houses of congress.

The congressman touched on key areas of the bill including health care cost reduction, insurance reform and both corporate and personal responsibility.

Rep. Edwards said the bill, if signed into legislation, would “require all Americans to have health insurance.”

On the corporate level, Edwards said employers would be asked to take responsibility in providing health care to employees but small business, those making less than $500,000 per year, would be exempt.

Businesses that employ fewer than 20 employees would be entitled to government stipend to help with the costs, Edwards said, but the responsibility would ultimately be on the American taxpayer to seek out a health insurance provider.

Should the bill become law, individuals who do not seek out coverage would incur a 2.5 percent income tax penalty and be placed into the public plan, Edwards said.

The congressman spoke for nearly thirty minutes before he took questions from the audience.

A Civil Discord
The Question-and-Answer session that followed could be described as an hour-and-a-half of harmonious discord.

Absent were the loud protests that have occurred at other town hall type meetings seen around the nation so far.

The doctors and medical professionals civilly expressed their concerns on the healthcare reform bill while the congressman listened and responded.

Dr. Brad Holland is an ear, nose and throat physician who says he was personally offended by President Barack Obama’s recent comments during a primetime press conference on how some doctors opt to perform elective surgeries to increase the payout from insurance companies.

Dr. Holland questioned Obama’s leadership and said instead of starting big with a national reform, the president should start on a smaller scale.

“If Medicare is going to be the system that is offered as the public option, we don’t want that and, frankly, even VA care, I don’t think we want that as our public option,” Holland said.

While Rep. Edwards described the president’s comments as counter-productive, he said the medical community should “applaud [the Obama Administration] for reaching out to physicians and the AMA and seeking their input from day one of the process.”

Dr. Milford Bunn, a retired pathologist, asked of Rep. Edwards, “Do you believe that healthcare is a constitutional right?”

“I don’t know that I’d say it’s a right but it would be my hope that we find a way through people taking personal responsibility in a public/private partnership to see that quality healthcare is available,” Edwards responded.

The congressman summed up his thoughts on the question by saying, “If we don’t interject personal responsibility into the system, I don’t think there is anything you can do that will solve…that will protect the present health care system we have.”

A number of other medical professionals voiced similar concerns in like fashion throughout the session before the congressman concluded the meeting by encouraging the physicians to continue their involvement.

Rep. Edwards told the group “it would be a good thing” if medical professionals could set “industry standards to avoid paying doctors who didn’t follow procedure.”

Wednesday’s meeting with Waco health care professionals was one of 19 the congressman is expected to hold with medical professionals, business people, residents and journalists throughout the congressional district.