Fredericksburg, Va. (CNSNews.com) – Matt Benenson of Culpepper, Va., does not have anything good to say about his emergency visit to a Paris hospital. At a town hall meeting in Frederickburg on Thursday, Beneson told more than 1,000 people, “If I had not had good American private insurance, I probably would have died waiting in the waiting room.” That’s what a French doctor told him, Beneson said.
 
“If government-run health care doesn’t work in France, if it doesn’t work in Britain, doesn’t work in Canada, how is it going to work here?” Beneson asked Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) to thunderous applause from the audience.
 
Warner said the U.S. is the best at dealing with medical emergencies, but he added that 70 percent of health care costs come from treating chronic illnesses. “The system does nothing to encourage prevention and wellness,” Warner said. Warner also said the current health care system is bankrupting the country and needs to be reformed.
 
Warner, elected last year in what has emerged as a swing state, said he does not fully support the Democrat-backed plan in Congress. Warner said he supports tort reform, would prefer to at least delay a public health care option, and would not support a bill that adds to the $9-trillion federal deficit.
 
The current House legislation – which could come up for a vote when Congress returns from its August recess – meets none of those criteria, however.
 
“Just as I said, a public plan that doesn’t change financial incentives and drive costs down is not going to get my support,” Warner said. Trying to buttress his pragmatic image, he added, “It will take folks checking their Rs and Ds (party affiliations) at the door.”
 
Throughout the town hall meeting, Warner stressed that he does support increased competition among health care providers – which has been the justification for a public option. He also admitted that he might consider a government option later: “If we don’t see more competition in the system, we might revisit it down the road,” Warner said.

(Press reports say that Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee are floating a "trigger" plan, which would delay a government-run health care option for ten years, giving private insurance companies time to prove that competition among themselves would be enough to bring down costs. If those private companies failed to meet certain criteria within ten years, the public option would then kick in.)
 
At several points during Thursday's two-hour event in Fredericksburg, the crowd shouted “tort reform” when Warner spoke about the increasing cost of health care. So far, Democratic congressional leaders have refused to add tort reform to their various health care reform bills, and President Barack Obama has told the American Medical Association he opposes medical malpractice reform.
 
One constituent told Warner, “We want you to take on the trial lawyers, and we will support you.” After the cheers died down, Warner said, “I think tort reform ought to be part of the health care package, but it’s just one part of the package.”
 
The reform plan that emerged from three House committees contains a government-run (public) option, no mention of tort reform, and according to the Congressional Budget Office, would increase the deficit by $1 trillion. Two bills being written in the Senate are similar.
 
The majority of the crowd in Fredericksburg was decidedly against the Democratic-backed proposal. However, most of the manufactured signs that appeared in the crowd read, “Standing Together for Health Insurance Reform.”
 
The various hand-made signs -- messages written on white poster board – read, “More Physicians Against the Public Option,” “No Government Health Care Plan,” and “If they Can’t Run Cars Right, How Can they Run Health Care
 
The signs alone are evidence that the opponents of health care reform are not “astroturf,” but real grassroots, said Steve MacDonald of Stafford. “Our representatives should not be implying this opposition is not self-generated,” MacDonald said.
 
Despite tough questions, Warner showed signs of being rattled only once, when he took a question from a high school government teacher. “Where in the Constitution, article and section, does the government have the right to run health care?”
 
That question received the only standing ovation and the longest applause of the night as Warner struggled to get his answer in.
 
“You are advocating we do away with Medicare,” he responded to the teacher. “There is no place in the Constitution that specifically says health care,” he continued.  There is no place in the Constitution where it specifically says education. There is no place in the Constitution that talks about the right to own a telephone.”
 
Warner did answer a question that many other Democratic politicians have either avoided or said no to: “I will read and review any Senate bill before I vote on it,” Warner said.