A lively conversation took place at the Senior Center in Council Bluffs on Thursday night. A diverse group gathered to talk through the health care and financial security challenges that they were facing.

A couple of interesting points and ideas were brought up during this conversation. Small business owners were frustrated with the financial burdens that health care and taxes were presenting for them. Specifically, one woman’s husband was frustrated because he has to pay Social Security taxes on his salary as well as his wife’s salary because she is an employee of the small business. These tax burdens have made it difficult for them afford their own health insurance.

Another attendee was a retired dentist who wanted to offer health insurance to his employees but was unable to afford it. He thought a way for practices like his to save money would be to alleviate the doctors of their reimbursement responsibilities to the insurance companies and have the patient take care of dealing with getting reimbursed directly with their insurance.

The group agreed that something needs to be done to fix Social Security and health care for future generations. They want to ask presidential candidates how they plan on making important changes to these systems to create positive change. They also want office holders to be more responsive to their constituents and work to bring the country back together.