If you’ve got an opinion on health care, you might want to check this out.

State Representative David Wirsing, R-Sycamore, will hold hearings on the issue of health care from 9:30 to 11 a.m. Nov. 10 at the DeKalb City Hall, 200 S. Fourth Street.

The hearing will consist of a panel with Wirsing as well as state Representatives Ron Lawfer, Patricia Lindner, Tom Cross and Jerry Weller, who is the chairman of the Republican Working Group on Affordable Health Care Reform to provide debate and answer questions.

Also attending the hearing will be several doctors, nurses, hospital administrators and insurance agents on Wirsing’s health care task force from the 70th District.

“The growing discontent with our nation’s health care system, and finding a way to make health care more affordable and accessible, has become a top priority,” Wirsing said. “These hearings will provide an informational setting so we can learn more about the problem and hopefully some solutions, from the experts who deal with it every day.”

Wirsing said the hearing is part of the national debate on the health care proposed by President Bill Clinton. “I see little substance as far as detail in the Clinton plan,” he said. “I don’t see an absolute plan until probably the year 2000.

“We want to give the health care industry an opportunity to relate to what Clinton’s plan is and how a national plan would affect what they do,” he said.

Any new ideas or solutions that come out of the hearing will be used by the Republican health care task force. They will, in turn, pass the information on to the state health care task force.

Wirsing said he believes the present health care plan should not be thrown out, just made more efficient. “I become almost angered when I hear people say that health care is in shambles. There is strong evidence that we have a strong health care program,” he said.

With the present health care, any kind of surgery is possible, he said. The down side is that it is “not distributed as well as it ought to be.

“We should not reinvent the wheel,” he said commenting on the present health care service. “It probably needs some changes in deliverance, but it’s already there.”

One aspect that needs work, he said, is the high insurance fees. “Coming from the business realm myself, I understand how difficult it is to pay insurance fees but we should work with what we’ve got from a questioning standpoint.”

Wirsing will hold another hearing at the Sandwich City Hall from 1:30 to 3 p.m. also on Nov. 10. All concerned citizens are invited to attend.