CRANBERRY TWP — Several leaders in health care on Wednesday debated the pros and cons of the current system while the debate rages on in Congress about overhauling health care.

The medical professionals spoke to a number of small-business people at an event sponsored by the Cranberry Township Chamber of Commerce.

Dr. Douglas Clough is president of the Allegheny County Medical Society, which is the largest county medical society in the state. He said he's talked to thousands of professionals about their opinions on what's to be done about a potential health care overhaul, and many opinions are the same.

"The system has to change right now because it's a mess," he said. "There's no other way around it. The entire system needs to be redone."

The Senate hopes to vote on a health care bill before Christmas, adding a timely component to Wednesday's debate.

Clough expressed his own views on why the system is and has been broken for years, adding that the introduction of expensive, high-technology equipment has spurred people to want the fastest and newest methods of treatment, not necessarily the treatment best suited for their needs.

Clough explained that he had a patient come to him complaining of back pain, a patient who then demanded an MRI that cost thousands of dollars even though such a test was deemed unnecessary by other doctors.

Not only do people demand the high-technology treatment, he said, but they turn around and refuse to pay the higher costs of treatment.

"The public perception of what people want drives up costs," he said. "People don't want to spare any expenses but then they don't want to pay for it. It's like they want a Cadillac but they don't want to pay for it."

Jason Kunzman, representing the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative, agreed with Clough and said he's encountered hundreds of cases of what he calls "Kentucky Fried Health Care," or people demanding faster care despite doctors' advice to the contrary.

Kunzman said it's up to small-business people to educate their employees that quality care — not the fastest care — is the best way to drive down costs.

"Small business leaders need to educate their employees on what good care is, not what's more or faster," he said.

Kunzman said he has his own theories about the current health care system, noting that Americans spend the most on health care and receive the least in life expectancy.

He also said about a third of the nation's economy is based on health care spending and that the country's citizens just aren't getting what they're paying for. "In the United States, we don't live that long and we spend the most, more than anyone else in the world," he said.

Clough disagreed and said America has a "pretty darn good" life expectancy rate despite the fact that we pay heavily for it.

He took more umbrage with the fact that the country already has a shortage of primary care physicians, surgeons and emergency medicine physicians at a time when the federal government is talking about introducing another 50 million uninsured people into the system.

He said the situation would create a disaster because there simply "wouldn't be enough troops on the ground" to deal with the surge of patients.

Regardless, he admitted, doctors and patients around the country won't have much say in the way the system is run if Congress does indeed vote to overhaul the system.

"We're going to have to deal with whatever system they give us," he said. "I just hope it works."