Town hall meeting in Marshall

MARSHALL, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – The debate over health care reform continues across America.

Locally, former Congressman Tim Walberg hosted a town hall meeting in Marshall on Wednesday night.

Walberg wants to keep government out of health care, and more than 200 people packed into a tiny meeting room to talk with him about health care reform. The majority of those in attendance were against a public option.

"The government hasn't proved they've done anything right so far," said Jeff Nugent. "VA needs to be fixed, Medicaid needs to be fixed, Medicare needs to be fixed."

Most of the people who showed up Wednesday night wanted the government out of the equation entirely.

"We have our own health care," said Carol Christma "I don't see why we can't stick with it, even though they say we can, I think we won't be able to."

Former Congressman Walberg said that President Barack Obama's promises ring hollow.

"When the president says you can stay on your private policy, he's right, until you have a change," said Walberg. "At least that's what I've read in the plan, and the only plan we're talking about right now is the House proposal that came out of the committee."

The proposal in question is more than 1,000 pages long, and Wednesday saw much debate over exactly what it says, like whether or not a public option would use tax dollars for abortions, or encourage euthanasia.

In the health care debate, the only thing both sides seem to agree on is that there must be health care reform.

On Monday, Congressman Pete Hoekstra will hold a town hall meeting in Holland. That meeting will run from 7:00 until 8:30 at the Evergreen Commons.