On Tuesday night, the newspaper held its 27th Public Square. The topic was health care reform. Unlike our September Public Square on health care this session was devoted entirely to comments from the public.

Durwood Usry is a small-business owner with a complicated health history and a big monthly insurance bill. “My health policy costs more than my mortgage, but it’s the first thing that gets paid at the first of every month,“ said Usry, a Henrico County resident who pays more than $1,500 to insure himself and his wife.

It’s hard to recall an issue that has sparked as much heated debate as the current effort to reform the American health care system. Emotion has ruled much of the discussion. That’s no surprise. We are, after all, talking about making enormous changes to a system that not only accounts for one-sixth of the U.S economy, but also deals daily with matters of life and death. Both sides have too frequently resorted to exaggeration, misinformation, and wishful thinking.

Patricia Churchill posed the toughest question of the day to two Virginia congressmen at the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Public Square on health care in September. What would Rep. Robert C. Scott, D-3rd, and Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-7th, do to help a relative of Churchill’s who, in her early 40s, had lost her job and health insurance, only to be diagnosed with a stomach tumor?

• Editor’s note: On Monday morning, The Times-Dispatch held its 26th Public Square at its offices downtown. The topic was health care reform and the crowd exceeded our capacity to seat everyone. The conversation began with presentations from Rep. Bobby Scott, a Democrat from Virginia’s 3rd District, and Rep. Eric Cantor, a Republican from Virginia’s 7th District. Afterward, audience members asked questions and made comments. Tom Silvestri, the newspaper’s publisher, moderated. Below is an edited transcript of the Public Square. To watch the entire event online, go to TimesDispatch.com and type in the keyword “Public Square.“

Leftovers from Monday’s Public Square include these questions received during and after the program: Why the unprecedented 10 a.m. start? It was the only time we could schedule both Rep. Eric I. Cantor and Rep. Robert TOM
SILVESTRI
“Bobby” Scott. Congress is in session, limiting options. Normally, the Public Square starts at 7 p.m. on either a Monday or Tuesday.

There’s been much ado about the death of civility. The impassioned debate about health care reform has added a few highlight films to the archive of bad manners displayed in public places. So it might come as a surprise to some that yesterday morning’s Public Square about health care at The Times-Dispatch was intelligent, informative—and almost unfailingly polite. Given the right forum, Americans can disagree agreeably. That’s especially true in Richmond, as we’ve learned at previous Public Squares.

They lined up early. They listened without booing. And they left in an orderly fashion—without shouting, fighting or the escort of law enforcement. Given the partisan sound and fury in recent town halls on health-care reform, attendees said yesterday’s Richmond Times-Dispatch public forum was just what the doctor ordered. “What you see on TV as far as trying to get messages across from our congressmen has just been a spectacle,“ said Thomas Francis, 66, a retired truck dispatcher from Richmond and one of 225 people who attended the forum at the newspaper’s offices in downtown Richmond.

On the way from the town hall to the public square, a polite and bipartisan conversation began about the future of health care in the United States. Civility reigned in a 90-minute Public Square forum yesterday at the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The forum featured two local congressmen on opposite sides of a political fight over health-care reform that grew nasty at town-hall meetings across the country last month.

A leading opponent of proposed health care reforms in Congress predicted at a Richmond Times-Dispatch Public Square today that differences could be bridged to produce acceptable legislation.

The Times-Dispatch will hold a Public Square on health care reform tomorrow at 10 a.m. in our downtown office at 300 East Franklin St. Two of the Richmond area’s congressmen—Republican Eric Cantor and Democrat Bobby Scott—will discuss their views and take questions from the audience. It is an opportunity to gain deeper knowledge about one of the most complicated issues facing the country.

For the past month and a half, legislators across the state and nation have been hosting their own health-care town halls. But the Richmond Times-Dispatch is bringing together two lawmakers on opposite sides of the debate for a civil conversation about health-care reform. Tomorrow, U.S. Reps. Eric I. Cantor, R-7th, and Robert C. Scott, D-3rd, will come together at The Times-Dispatch’s 26th Public Square to assess health care. Cantor and Scott will briefly outline their positions on health care and then open the floor to questions and comments.

For the past month and a half, legislators across the state and nation have been hosting their own health-care town halls. But the Richmond Times-Dispatch is bringing together two lawmakers on opposite sides of the debate for a civil conversation about health-care reform. On Monday, U.S. Reps. Eric I. Cantor, R-7th, and Robert C. Scott, D-3rd, will come together at The Times-Dispatch’s 26th Public Square to assess health care. Cantor and Scott will briefly outline their positions on health care and then open the floor to questions and comments.

U.S. Reps. Eric I. Cantor, R-7th, and Robert C. Scott, D-3rd, will assess health-care reform at the next Richmond Times-Dispatch Public Square. The event is scheduled for 10 a.m. Sept. 21 at the Times-Dispatch’s downtown offices, 300 E. Franklin St. Cantor and Scott will briefly outline their positions, then open the floor to questions and comments.

U.S. Reps. Eric I. Cantor, R-7th, and Robert C. Scott, D-3rd, have agreed to kick off the next Richmond Times-Dispatch Public Square, which will focus on the debate over health-care reform. They will briefly outline their positions, then open the floor to questions and comments. While legislators statewide have been hosting their own health-care town halls, this unique Times-Dispatch event will bring together two of Virginia’s most knowledgeable officials on the subject of health-care reform.