Sen. John Thune told local businessmen Tuesday that Americans need to speak up –- and soon –- in order to prevent Congress from giving rushed approval to a health care reform bill he called “a train wreck waiting to happen.”

The U.S. Senate voted along party lines Saturday to move the 2,074-page Senate bill to the floor for debate next week. Many Senate Democrats are anxious to pass a health care reform bill by the end of December, but others say that’s not nearly enough time to adequately debate a major piece of legislation that will affect generations to come.

“People need to look at this thing and see what’s really in it,” Thune, R-S.D., told a few dozen people who attended a health care round table discussion in Rapid City. “The only thing that’s going to slow this thing down is the American public.”

Many, if not most, Americans agree that health care reform is needed to lower costs and provide health insurance for more people. But according to Thune -– a leader in the Republican minority that opposes the Democrats’ reform plans –- the Senate bill up for debate would increase health care spending, increase premium costs, cut Medicare and impose $26 billion in new unfunded mandates on states by increasing eligibility for Medicaid.

Businesses and middle-class families would wind up shouldering the burden, he said. For the 182 million Americans who have health insurance, “what you get out of this is higher taxes and higher premiums,” Thune said.

That worries small business owners such as Al Rieman of Black Hills Harley-Davidson, who said the costs are already high. Rieman said that for each hour an employee works, it now costs his business an extra $6.09 to provide health insurance for that employee and his family.

As insurance costs have increased, the business has had to increase deductibles and co-pay amounts for employees, essentially lowering the quality of their health care coverage.

Rieman said he’s concerned the government is “finding more ways to bring people into a broken system.”

“We have to find a way to fix the system,” he said. “If it were easy or achievable, the government would have done it already.”

Rod Dibona of Rapid Fire Protection said Congress should first address problems of waste, fraud and abuse in the current health care system. Tort reform should also be part of any reform package, he said.

Wellness incentives, interstate competition and small business pools are other options Thune said could be explored.

“We do need to do this right,” he said.

Most of those who attended Tuesday’s session seemed to agree that government-run health care is a bad idea. Several said the government has repeatedly proven itself incapable of doing things as well as the private sector. And, as Thune pointed out, lawmakers routinely underestimate the cost of implementing new medical programs.

That’s a major concern for many people. The proposed bill has a price tag of $848 billion, but Thune said the actual cost of implementing the plan over 10 years is closer to $2.5 trillion.

Cuts to Medicare are supposed to cover some of those costs, but Thune said he’d be surprised to see Medicare cuts approved. As a result, “I think there’s going to be a lot of borrowed money” to pay for health care reform.

Meanwhile, Thune cited projections that the national debt could be at $17.5 trillion by 2017, which he said poses “a clear and present danger to America’s future.”

Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., supports the reform plan now before the Senate, however, and says much of the criticism is exaggerated or inaccurate. During a stop in Rapid City at the Cornerstone Rescue Mission on Tuesday, Johnson said the Democrats’ plan would help small businesses provide coverage to their workers and make it more affordable to those workers.

Those railing against the reform plans sound much like opponents of Medicare when it was being debated many years ago, Johnson said.

“That’s what they said about Medicare,” he said.

Medicare benefits for seniors will be preserved under the plan, Johnson said. The Medicare cuts are aimed at a portion of the program where private insurers provide services, generally at a much higher cost, Johnson said.

According to CNN, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projected that the Senate bill would extend health insurance coverage to 31 million additional Americans. However, Thune said 20 million Americans would remain without insurance.

You can find a copy of the Senate bill on Thune’s Web site at http://thune.senate.gov/public/

Journal staff writer Kevin Woster contributed to this story.

Contact Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419 or heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com