Speaking in Port Gibson Thursday, U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said health reform legislation pending in the House will cure what ails the cost of health care in Mississippi. Speaking earlier in Vicksburg, a physician who has been active in state and national discussions on the topic, was skeptical.

“What we propose to do is have a program that says, ‘If you don’t have insurance, we will design a program to cover you,” Thompson said during a town hall-style meeting attended by about 60 people. “But if you have your own insurance, you keep it. We’re only talking about the people who don’t have insurance.”

Dr. Dan Edney of Vicksburg said he wasn’t so sure about that. Speaking to Port City Kiwanians, Edney said the American Medical Association “does not want the government to take a bigger chunk of the American public under its wing for health care. The government is a very poor health care deliverer.”

Thompson, who represents the state’s 2nd Congressional District, also heard from opponents of the legislation, given a minute each, and the process was far more orderly than other town hall sessions being held across the nation.

Port Gibson resident Lenora Dotson, 77, described the session as “decent and orderly.” The retiree said she has Medicare and a supplement provided with her pension, but supports the House bill. “I’m for it because there’s a lot of people who don’t have insurance and need it.” Dotson said.

About one in five Mississippians have no health coverage, and Thompson said the legislation is for them.

“Pay to participate” was the anthem spoken by Thompson.

Others rejected Thompson’s depiction of the changes as simple and straightforward.

“It’s about a step of control,” said Deborah Lum, 49, of Port Gibson. “It doesn’t have anything to do with better insurance. Personally, I think government controlled insurance is not the best.”

The Mississippi TEA Party Vicksburg Chapter, established in mid-February by a group of citizens opposing a variety of policies coming out of the White House, was represented. Vicksburg resident Gwen Trimble had made notes from a Web site,  www.aproundtable.org, and said, “I’m here because my husband is disabled. I don’t want this to go through, period.”

Trimble said she and her husband both have health insurance, but are unsatisfied with the price. “We’re not happy with the price, but we’ll live with it,” she said.

Edney made clear in his talk that the nation’s doctors want health care reform and agree that health coverage is too expensive, but worry about the “public option” in the bill as written. In essence, it says people with jobs that offer group policies may stay in those plans, but if employers choose not to offer plans they will pay a fee and the workers will be enrolled in a government-designed and subsidized plan.

Edney said the public option will be a great “opportunity for employers to dump their employee health coverage.”

Medical costs are skyrocketing because of cost shifting — charging exorbitant prices to cover unpaid costs by the uninsured — waste, American selfishness and the endless choices Americans have grown used to.

“The current system is inadequate,” he said, with no safety net for families who are just “one pink slip away” from losing coverage. Not just the unemployed are facing the problem, however. Many small businesses have had to stop providing medical insurance for their employees, and now medium-sized employers are struggling, too.

Providing medical insurance coverage for the working poor is a “fixable problem” without an all-encompassing makeover of health care in America, Edney said.

Thompson is expected to be the only Mississippi delegate to the House supporting the health care legislation. Fellow Democrats Gene Taylor of District 1 and Travis Childers are on record as opposing the legislation as written. Rep. Gregg Harper, Republican from District 3, also is opposed. Debate and a vote are expected when Congress reconvenes after Labor Day.

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Contact Manivanh Chanprasith at mchan@vicksburgpost.com

Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com