DANVILLE – Dan and Brenda Furry run a small machine shop in Danville that's been in the family since 1962, but the Furrys struggle to provide health insurance for their employees and themselves.

Health insurance premiums under the business' group plan increased, and the Furry's 15 employees began dropping out of it, some going without insurance altogether, which increased costs more, Brenda Furry said. When the business moved to a self-insured plan, Dan Furry was denied coverage.

Brenda Furry not only worries about her husband if a major health crisis occurs, but also about the business. She said the couple could lose their home and the business if that happened.

"Health insurance companies can do whatever they want," Brenda Furry told U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Urbana, at Johnson's town-hall meeting Monday night in Danville.

Furry was one of more than 200 people who attended the public forum in a standing room-only meeting room at David S. Palmer Arena. Furry asked Johnson what he intends to do about health care issues that affect small businesses like Furry Inc., which don't get government bailouts like major corporations do.

Taxes on small businesses like Furry Inc. should not be increased, Johnson told her. He said no one really knows the exact parameters of the national health care legislation currently before Congress. But he said it will take a lot to fund it, and that's what concerns him.

Johnson said the proposed health care legislation is a 1,000-page bill that's still changing, but he does know there will be trade-offs, such as rationing of health care services to senior citizens, which he does not support.

Some in the crowd in favor of the plan openly disagreed with Johnson, who had to remind those in attendance more than once to be respectful of differing opinions and to allow those asking questions to be heard.

Although the town-hall meeting was open for questions on various national topics, health care took center stage.

Anticipating a large turnout, Johnson's staff moved the meeting from the Danville municipal building's council chambers to a larger room at the arena, which still could not accommodate all who came, including a busload of about 40 people from Champaign-Urbana.

The bus ride was coordinated by the Campaign for Better Health Care, with offices in Champaign and Chicago. Because Johnson did not attend a health care forum meeting on Saturday, residents boarded the bus to attend Johnson's town hall meeting Monday night.

In the crowd were signs both for and against the national health care package that Jim Duffett, executive director of the Campaign for Better Health Care, said the nation cannot afford to go without.

Duffett's organization urges members of Congress to pass health care reform measures before their August break.

Before the meeting, Duffett said that if reform doesn't pass, individuals in Illinois will see their health care costs soar, more will lose their coverage, small businesses will continue to end coverage and more hospitals will close their doors because of the growing number of uninsured.

Although Furry knows very well how the current system is not adequately serving her family or business, she said she doesn't have a lot of details about the legislation before Congress.

Johnson fielded about a dozen comments and questions during the one-hour meeting, and most were about health care.

One audience member asked whether health care savings accounts could be an answer, and Johnson said he absolutely supports them and they should be an area to consider to make health care services work.

Laberta Pepe of Danville said she's been without health insurance since 1983, and she believes taking the profit aspect out of the health insurance industry is necessary, because that's already forcing a rationing of health care services to people.

"The health insurance industry has got be reformed," she said.