President Obama dealt directly and clearly with health-care reform issues in a town hall-style gathering in Raleigh Wednesday.

That was the reaction of Dr. George Bussey, chief medical officer at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital, who was one of three FirstHealth corporate officials who attended the event.

CEO Charles Frock, Ken Lewis, president of FirstCarolinaCare Insurance Co., and Bussey secured tickets through Congressman Howard Coble's office. Tickets were free but required because of security and traffic needs. They were among an estimated 2,200 who attended the president's speech at Broughton High School in Raleigh.

"It was a mix of campaign rally and education session," Bussey said of the experience. "It was a good, friendly crowd, a very respectful group of people."

After his address, the president took eight or 10 questions from the audience.

"It was a pretty good and healthy question-and-answer session," Bussey said. "The president responded fairly directly to the questions, some that were straight-forward and some that were pretty complicated."

Bussey said FirstHealth has not adopted a specific position on health-care reform or on the president's plan. He said it would not be appropriate to express an opinion about the proposals now before Congress.

However, he said few people involved in the health-care professions would disagree with the need for reform.

For more on this story, see Friday's print edition of The Pilot.