Senator Warner had a productive and wide-ranging conversation about the need for health care reform with leading health, business and community leaders from across the Roanoke and New River Valleys.

Most observers now agree on what's "broken" in our current health care system: we spend too much, we pay for too many things we don't need, and while we pay more for healthcare we still have the highest mortality rates among industrialized nations.

Several of the medical professionals and hospital executives acknowledged that the current system is, in effect, a "transaction treadmill:" docs are paid for the quantity, and not necessarily the quality, of the services they provide.

Participants also acknowledged that the current health care system does not include any incentives for primary care physicians to emphasize prevention and healthier lifestyles.

Senator Warner told the community leaders that we may have reached "a moment in time" when all of the big players in health care are finally talking seriously about addressing the challenge. The Senator noted significant new federal reosurces for health IT, a serious push to develop standards based on good data, a consensus that we can not continue to fund long-term care with health care dollars.