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JEFFERSON CITY - The national health reform has some health managers concerned that struggling mid-Missourians could be forgotten.

President Obama's health reform aims to cut two trillion dollars off America's medical bills over the next ten years.

John Dolan from the Missouri Health Care Association says a big byproduct of the reform effort is to give less and told to do more.

"Somebody bares the brunt. Our military do that way too often, and I don't want the older citizens of Missouri who fought for freedom and did so well to suddenly get less, and have their providers be requried to do more," Dolan said.

Dolan hopes Mother's Day will remind the government of the importance of caring for the health needs of elderly mid-Missourians.

Dolan is flying to Washington in June to push for more support for the health needs of elderly people and the medical businesses that support them.

The national savings are meant to come from making administration of health care more efficient. Smooth functioning is a big issue for the many mid-Missouri health care facilities that have to coordinate patients and records. 

David Dillon from the Missouri Hospital Association says currently local health care facilities operate different system of paper work. He says this can cost a lot of time and money.

"Patients would have more efficient care as their records are moved from primary care in their physian's office into a hospital, so that the hospital doesn't have to do all of the entry of their health history," Dillon says of the proposed law.

Dillon says that having one electronic database across the mid-Missouri counties would save money, medical resources and waiting times for patients. He also hopes Missouri recieves more money for medical technology research that could benefit the many research institutions in Columbia.

Reported by: Tom Maclean
Edited by: Jill Glavan

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