More than 10,000 people tapped into a live telephone conference with Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, Monday night for a Question&Answer session focused on the controversial health care bill working its way through Congress.

While the legislation has been a lightning rod for political debate, Thompson made no apologies for his support of the measure, which passed the House Ways and Means Committee, of which he is a member, in a 23-18 vote last week.

President Obama’s top domestic priority, the reform legislation must now clear another House committee and then the House itself before it is combined with the bill out of the Senate. Work on the bill has stalled, however, with the House Energy and Commerce Committee canceling its session Tuesday amid concerns about the legislation from fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats.

Thompson, a member of the Blue Dogs, voted for the bill.

This push for health care reform has been the subject of much scrutiny in recent weeks, both in Napa County and across the nation. Last week, nearly 200 protesters demonstrated in front of Thompson’s Napa office in opposition to the bill.

During the conference call Monday night, Thompson stood behind the legislation. He lamented the current state of health care and called for a new system that ensures that “everybody has access to quality, affordable health care.”

“Just about everyone recognizes that the system’s broken,” Thompson said. “It’s the most expensive in health care in the world and the outcomes aren’t where they should be. … It’s making us unable to compete globally.”

During the teleconference, Thompson responded to criticism of the public-option provision in the bill, claiming that the provision has been “misconstrued as a government plan.”

The public option plan would be one of many, Thompson said, and people would not be forced to switch from their current plans. “If you’re happy with what you have, you keep it,” he said. “Nobody’s forcing you to go into any sort of government program.”

Thompson said concern that the bill would reflect a move toward socialized medicine is “more about fear tactics than anything else.”

“We’re not planning on, nor do I want to … take over the health care system,” Thompson said. “We just want to make sure that it works, it provides that coverage it needs to provide, and it does so at the cost it needs to help businesses” survive.

Thompson added that the public option is critical to introducing competition to the marketplace. He acknowledged that getting the House’s support for the provision will be a tall order, and added that a single-payer provision — a separate proposal — almost certainly would not have enough support.

Thompson touted other aspects of the legislation that passed the Ways and Means Committee, including discounts on brand name drugs for Medicare recipients and an investment in recruiting and training doctors and nurses.

The health care coverage would stay with the individual, Thompson explained, and, therefore, would allow people who lose their jobs to stay insured. Coverage would extend to mental health and would not be denied based on preexisting conditions.

“There’s some very good components to this bill,” Thompson said. “Again, it’s not done. It still has a ways to go, but I think it’s a very, very important first step.”

With health care dominating the discussion Monday night, Thompson addressed a separate proposal to tax health benefits to employees.

Noting that the idea was first raised by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., during the presidential debates and most recently was endorsed by the director of the Congressional Budget Office, Thompson said, “I think it’s way premature to think that that’s where this is going to end up, but the idea would be not only would it provide the money necessary to fix the health care system, but it would also reduce (wasteful) behavior in regard to how we use our benefits.”

Listening to the people

Touching on topics other than health care, Thompson addressed the national debt — which he called “the most important issue that we face” — as well as U.S. troops in Afghanistan and the country’s dependency on foreign oil.

He said he will advocate for a pay-as-you-go system that will keep Congress from implementing programs it can’t afford, and noted his work on the federal stimulus bill to include tax incentives for alternative energy.

He added that he believes the United States took its eye off the ball when it deployed troops to Iraq instead of Afghanistan, allowing the Taliban to move across the border into Pakistan, where nuclear weapons could pose a serious threat.

“The good news,” Thompson said, “is that we’re quickly getting out of Iraq … (and) some of those folks have been redeployed to Afghanistan.”

Monday night’s town hall phone meeting had a record number of participants, with 10,100 people calling in from across Congressional District 1.

“It was great to hear from so many people and have a chance to talk about the issues facing our country,” Thompson said. “While I didn’t have a chance to get to everyone’s question, it was an important opportunity for me to hear from constituents about what’s important to them. People are understandably concerned about their access to quality, affordable health care, and I’ll continue to keep my constituents’ feedback in mind as Congress fine-tunes its reform legislation.”