Aug. 23--SANFORD -- U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-Lillington) said Friday that while the current bill before Congress isn't perfect, he's confident Americans will have a reformed health care system by year's end.

Etheridge and his aid Don Owens sat down with The Herald for an hour-long discussion on health care, an issue that currently has the country sharply divided. Etheridge was the guest speaker at a recent town hall meeting on the subject in Lillington, one that drew more than 200 people inside the CCCC campus meeting room and another 200-plus (mostly protesters) outside the building.

He told The Herald he understands HR3200 -- the 1,000-plus page bill aimed at providing "affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending" -- has much opposition, but he said he's confident it's the right direction for the country.

"Of course there are things in this bill that need to be hammered out, but we cannot let perfection stand in the way of the good," he said. "HR3200 is a good start, and I believe reform is necessary to ensure North Carolina families receive the care that they need and deserve."

He said the reason so many are passionate both for an against reform is because health care is a personal issue that touches everybody in a different way.

"I'll be taking feedback from voters heading into September," he said. "I think most folks can agree on 80 percent of this legislation. It's that 20 percent that is going to be tough. I would hope we could come out with something at the end of this year that the people can be happy with. If you don't get it done this year, then it will be harder to get it done in the future."

Etheridge touched on a number of issues dealing with health care, some which were questions submitted by Herald readers.

* On the size of the plan: "I understand there is a level of concern about where the government plan is and how big it is. I've been wrestling with it all year. Part of it is that this is a very complicated piece of legislation. It's 17 percent of our gross domestic product. We could do nothing, but ... if we do nothing over the next five or seven years, it will be 20 percent of our gross domestic product. And then we'll be in trouble as a country."

* On the perception that Congress is "hurrying" the bill through: "There's concern on part of some folks that it's being moved too quickly. But heck, there's been talk about fixing health insurance since Teddy Roosevelt over a hundred years ago. It was an issue with Truman, then Nixon and Clinton. It's very difficult to deal with ... people are concerned about costs, and margins have been going up."

* On rumors of care for illegal immigrants and death panels: "Neither are true. Once that kind of information gets out, it's very difficult (to rid of the rumors). Those issues still come up, and you want to refute them and show people the bill section by section. And then you lose the opportunity to dialogue about the pieces of this bill that people really want to talk about. (Such as,) they want to talk about whether they can get health care if they have a preexisting condition, and right now they can."

* On the idea that the U.S. will model Canada or Europe: "This plan doesn't model what they're doing in England, because you're still going to have your free-standing hospitals, and doctors are going to run their business. All this talk started with health care, but we're really reforming health insurance business as well. Doctors and hospitals still run their operations."

Etheridge said he thought reform would be done by the end of the year that would probably feature the "80 percent" of the current proposals that were good, and eliminating the 20 percent that were bad. He acknowledged the poor job leaders had done in communicating with the public about the reform proposals.

He also pledged to vote against any health reform that wasn't "revenue neutral," or reform that would result in an increase in the federal deficit, saying that would be a "discipline issue" for Congress. He said the causes of the deficit were clear -- the expense of the Iraqi war and the poor economy.

Etheridge's aid, Don Owens, told The Herald the Congressman would respond to follow-up questions by e-mail, but later sent an e-mail message to Publisher Bill Horner III saying that Etheridge's full "break" schedule wouldn't allow him to respond to the questions in time for today's publication.

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The following questions were submitted by The Herald and readers and answered by Etheridge in e-mail form (his responses below are completely unedited). Read the entire Q&38A and hear audio clips from Etheridge's interview at our Web site, www.sanfordherald.com.

HERALD: Regarding the health insurance reform you and your colleagues will vote on soon -- HR 3200. The proposed legislation contains language that would seem to prohibit the purchase of private insurance after the legislation becomes law. Yet many Congressmen favoring the legislation have stated that, "If you like your health care plan and your doctor, you can keep them." How do you reconcile the difference in the wording of the legislation with such claims?

ETHERIDGE: I can understand the confusion about this issue, and I would like to be clear about this since there have been a lot of myths regarding H.R. 3200. H.R. 3200 protects and actually expands health insurance choice for individuals, including private insurance options. Section 102, "protecting the choice to keep current coverage" allows anyone with a private health plan to stay in that plan.