As part of a grassroots effort to reform health care, Montanans are sending ideas to President-elect Barack Obama - and, so far, many are saying that a national, "Medicare for all" system is the way to go.

"The consensus of (our group) was that we did not see a lot of change coming unless we went to a single-payer, universal health system," said Deborah Hanson of Miles City, who organized a meeting of local citizens at the behest of Obama's transition team. "That was sort of a general consensus - knowing, of course, that may not happen."

The Miles City meeting, held Dec. 21 at Hanson's home, was one of several in Montana and thousands held across the nation during the last two weeks of December.

Obama's nominated secretary of Health and Human Services, former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, asked that Obama supporters hold local health care community discussions nationwide to gauge the problems people see with America's health-care system and how they'd like to reform it.

The feedback will be compiled in a report delivered to Obama and "will help shape the health-care reform process," an official with his transition team said last week.

A Medicare-for-all system, also referred to as a single-payer system, would offer health coverage for all Americans, funded largely by some sort of broad-based tax. Citizens would choose their own doctor and care-givers, and bills would be paid by the national plan.

Obama has not proposed such a reform and said he probably wouldn't support it. U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who has proposed wide-ranging health reforms, has said a single-payer system is "' off the table" for consideration.

Both Obama and Baucus have said they support reforms that maintain America's system of private health insurance provided by employers, along with publicly funded programs like Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor.

But at several of the Montana health-care meetings held in conjunction with the Obama transition team, attendees said a Medicare-style program should be extended to everyone.

For more details, see Thursday's Independent Record.