Feingold: Health care fix will need wide support

By Matthew Ryno / News Republic

FAIRFIELD — U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold answered questions from citizens for about 40 minutes at the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center on Saturday morning.

About 30 citizens attended the meeting, and among other questions, Feingold, D-Middleton, heard concerns about the rising costs of health care.

"I have mixed feelings on what will happen with health care," Feingold said. "I've been looking into this for years, and now a lot of businesses are calling for changes, and even conservatives are calling for change."

He said he would like to see affordable health care for all Americans, and said he has proposed a bill with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., that will allow a community to host pilot projects in order to determine what health care plan will work best.

"We can have real experiments on the ground to see if something can do better than what we have now," Feingold said.

However, he noted something was wrong with government, and admitted there was a "25 to 30 percent chance" the health care system can be fixed by any presidential candidate who takes office. He encouraged bipartisan support to solve the problem.

The session in Fairfield marked the senator's 68th listening session this year. Feingold has 72 sessions planned this year — one in each Wisconsin county.