To participate, area residents can dial a toll-free number to ask and listen to questions posed to Rep. Shuler, who also will explain his views on the bill. Shuler has met with local doctors, hospitals and constituents in the past two months to discuss health-care reform in addition to discussions with national health-care organizations.

&dquo;Although I support health-care reform, the current House bill does not do enough to lower the skyrocketing costs of medical services and I do not support it,&dquo; Rep. Shuler said. &dquo;The legislation provides few incentives to promote wellness, disease management, and prevention. It also mandates that most businesses provide health insurance to their workers at a time when many companies already are struggling to meet payrolls.&dquo;

The House health-reform bill will require all Americans to obtain health insurance, whether from their employers or by purchasing it from a provider. The bill offers credits for low-income people, and the federal government would create a public-option plan that would compete with private insurers.

But the legislation doesn&squo;t do enough to wring out waste, fraud and other excessive costs from our current health-care system, Rep. Shuler said. Congress should try to fix the system we have now before trying to drastically expand it.

&dquo;If we don&squo;t truly reform the existing system to contain costs, then we are just making the predicament worse by adding millions of people to a broken system,&dquo; he said.

The first tele-town hall will be on Thursday, Aug. 13 at 7:10 p.m. To participate, call Rep. Shuler&squo;s office (202-225-6401) to receive the phone number to dial in with.