OTTUMWA — As part of a national campaign, AARP has teamed up with several organizations to obtain the voice of the American people on two important issues facing this nation — health care and financial security.

Mark Fetterhoff, a senior coordinator for the “Divided We Fail” campaign, said this is in efforts to provide the presidential candidates with vital information from citizens about what they believe needs to be done to better this country for present and future generations.

In order to gain the best possible consensus, the group will visit 48 different regions in Iowa, conducting mediated “town-hall” discussions. The discussions start with three broad approaches addressing health care and financial security solutions.

The three approaches consist of a government-only solution, an individual savings approach and a shared responsibility between both parties.

In efforts to gain the most honest and accurate data, facilitators asked that the participants not be named.

During the discussion, each of the issues were addressed under the different approaches, lending many personal stories of hardships, feelings toward particular issues, such as Social Security and pharmaceutical costs and opinions of what should done.

Some of the more common concerns that were raised with the health care discussions were increasing premiums, medical and drug costs and overpriced services.

It was discussed whether the government should provide health care coverage to every American nationwide at an equal level or a scale based on income. A majority of the elder population present was frustrated with the high costs and many said they almost can’t afford it.

“These are issues that face not only the older generation today, but the upcoming and future generations,” said Frank Spillers, the mediator of the discussion.

He said the purpose of the campaign is to gain the voice of the citizens and bring these issues to the presidential candidates so they can take action.

Scott Niles can be reached at (641) 683-5360 or via e-mail at sjniles@mchsi.com.