BLOOMINGTON -- Health care in the United States can improve without an exclusively government-run system, several medical professionals agreed at a public forum sponsored Wednesday night by the McLean County Medical Society.

More than 60 people attended the 2½-hour forum on health care reform at the DoubleTree Hotel & Conference Center. The panel included six physicians and the chief executive officers of BroMenn Regional Medical Center and OSF St. Joseph Medical Center.

"The solution (to the health care reform issue) is healthy discussion and debate and considering all sides," moderator Dr. Tom Pliura said afterward. "There is no magic bullet."

While a couple of audience members said they would have preferred a more diverse panel, the sentiment among speakers appeared to approve of the health care system locally and to be critical of a government-run health care system. While a government-run system could provide stability and standardization, it also could result in rationing of care, said Dr. John Wieland, a general surgeon.

But Shirley Drazewski, executive director of the Community Health Care Clinic, the free clinic in Normal for the uninsured, said the focus should be on how to improve health care to individuals who truly need it rather than to debate health care reform.

"This country will never have an exclusive, government-run system," she said. "It's not gonna happen."

Instead, the focus should be on solutions, such as getting more doctors to volunteer to treat poor people without insurance by giving them tax breaks, Drazewski said.

Turning to conservatives critical of the Obama Administration, Drazewski said: "We have to get past this we-they mentality. We're all on the same team."

She challenged doctors to give her ideas on how the clinic can improve its work.

Dr. Uday Deoskar, a specialist for older adults, said one reason for rising health care costs is an increase in older adults with chronic diseases. Some diseases are a result of lifestyle.

If people would make responsible health decisions every day, there would be less illness and health care costs would decrease, he said.

"It's not the government, it's not the politician," Deoskar said. "The solution to health care reform lies with you and with me and with all of us."

Dr. Larry Nord, an orthopedic surgeon, discussed the need for tort reform (reducing damages awarded in medical malpractice lawsuits), patient care focused in doctors' offices rather than in more costly emergency rooms, and the value of using generic medicine and health savings accounts when possible.

BroMenn CEO Roger Hunt discussed employers giving health insurance premium rebates to employees who improve their health.