WARNER ROBINS - U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall, D-Ga, began his health care reform listening tour Monday morning, meeting with some 15 Houston Healthcare administrators and physicians regarding their views and suggestions.

"This was a very helpful meeting," Marshall said following the hour-long session at Houston Medical Center in Warner Robins. The meeting was closed to the general public but open to local media.

"I expect to have more of these meetings over the next week and a half," the former Macon mayor said. "By the end of that time, I will know a lot more about the views of providers, whether they are physicians or hospitals."

The District 8 representative said some key points were already emerging. "Physicians are not real wild about having either a Medicare or an insurance bureaucrat between them and their patients," Marshall reported. "Physicians also generally believe there are a lot of reforms that could be put in place, but they feel strongly that we should be fixing the existing system."

The cost of the current system is a major issue. "They acknowledge the existing system is heading us toward bankruptcy nationally and we can't sustain that course," he added. "We are going to have to make some significant changes as a country. I am adamantly opposed to pouring more money into the current system."

The discussion featured several controversial topics including tort reform, malpractice litigation and end-of-life care. Marshall said physicians will play an important role in driving public opinion.

"People will be looking for guidance from doctors they trust," he told the Houston Healthcare staff. "There are a lot of concerns physicians have not yet channeled to patients and physicians have a responsibility to get rid of a lot of myths."

He said end-of-life decisions should be between families, pastors and physicians. "It's not an issue of law," Marshall stressed. He also added that everyone should have an advanced medical directive and a living will.

"They need to think about it when they are competent to do so," Marshall said. "That's a no-brainer."

Dr. Scott Edenfield, an internal medicine specialist, said physicians want to see a leaner, meaner, more efficient health care system.

"Our health care system is very inefficient right now," he acknowledged. "We're all for making it better, but most of us don't want the whole system scrapped. We'd like to see the things that are broken fixed then maybe fine tune the other problems."

The veteran physician said he believes Marshall is sincere about reforming health care in a thoughtful manner. "But I think a lot of his colleagues in the Democrat Party want to throw the whole system out and create something new. That's not the answer," he emphasized. "People very much in mass are rising up and saying they will not tolerate that."

Edenfield does not support a government-run insurance option, an initiative the Obama administration implied over the weekend might we withdrawn.

"That's pretty much a no-brainer," Edenfield said. "If the president pushes forward with a public option, there would be such a public outcry that he would never get the bill passed in Congress."

The Houston County physician said he was encouraged by the groundswell of public interest in health care reform. "It has really warmed my heart that we have that type of fire in our souls to rise up and say this is not right and see it doing some good," Edenfield noted.

Skip Philips, Houston Healthcare's chief executive officer, said the meeting gave health care providers a chance to express their views on key issues.

"A big one is don't throw out the baby with the bath water," he said. "The current system has some good features."

Philips echoed Marshall's view that current health care financing is not sustainable. "Medicare covers less than the cost of care and that's why we have the cross subsidy with commercial insurances," he said. "Having coverage for everyone that's affordable and can't be taken away is a key part of the system of the future."

Marshall will hold a public town hall meeting in Warner Robins on Aug. 24 at the VFW post on Corder Road beginning at 6 p.m.