For liberal Democrats in Congress, the solution is obvious for controlling health insurance costs and insuring 47 million Americans who lack health care insurance: launch a massive new government-run program with an estimated price tag of $1 trillion.

But such a plan is fraught with potential problems that could jeopardize the health insurance and hospital industries, according to panelists at a health care forum Monday night sponsored by the Greater Belleville Area Chamber of Commerce at Lindenwood University.

It's possible big corporations could move their workers onto the government-run system. Trouble is, it only pays 91 percent of the true cost of hospital services, according to Mark Turner, president and chief executive of Belleville Memorial Hospital.

This compares with the 130 percent of true costs shouldered by private plans, Turner said.

"It seems like it'd be very hard for employer-based plans to survive," Turner told 60 chamber members and guests who showed up at the campus auditorium.

Panelist Kevin Shrake, the president of St. Elizabeth Hospital in Belleville, said a key reason so much fear surrounds the health care reform proposals in Washington, D.C., is they are in a state of flux -- to the great concern of Medicare recipients.


"So they're very interested in knowing how that plan will affect them," Shrake said.

With two weeks to go before federal lawmakers end their summer recess, tensions are rising over whether President Obama can pull off his ambitious bid to make the nation's health care system fairer and more cost-efficient.

Paul Gada, another panelist, and manager of Belleville-based Allsup's consumer products division, counseled caution on plans to overhaul the nation's health care industry, which accounts for about one-sixth the nation's gross domestic product.

Panelist David Smith, of Rogers Benefits Group, which brings together health insurance companies and brokers, called on lawmakers to take the time needed to get health care reform right.

"The speed at which we're moving through this is just too fast," Smith said.

Contact reporter Mike Fitzgerald at mfitzgerald@bnd.com or 239-2533.