Fargo, N.D. (AP) Senator Kent Conrad says health care reform is not an option.

Conrad has been holding public meetings around the state to get comments from health care providers, business leaders and patient advocates, and to push his plan for private cooperatives as an alternative for health insurance.

He's been joined at the hearings by Mary Wakefield, a North Dakota native and former Conrad chief of staff who now heads the federal Health Resources and Services Administration.

Dr. Dori Carlson, a Park River optometrist, told the hearing in Grand Forks today that she has 10 employees and her health insurance costs went up 20 percent last year.

Pharmacist Dennis Johnson says current Medicare reimbursement policies have led some of his customers to stop taking medicine.

In Minot, business leaders told Conrad they are struggling to provide health care. YMCA executive director Deb Kunkel says half her employees had to drop their insurance.

Conrad said it's not realistic to walk away from the problem. He says, "if we don't get this right we're going to be condemned in history." (Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APNP 07-02-09 1933CDT | save this article / add to your favorites list