MANKATO — Forget whether a public option insurance plan might be a good idea. The real question, said a group of touring doctors, is whether there is any place for private health insurance in health care.

“The problem with our health-care system is it’s more about money and fear than it is about health,” said Dr. Paul Hochfeld, one of seven doctors from Oregon touring the country to call for more dramatic change than being proposed in Congress.

The doctors — MadAsHellDoctors.com — told a group of several dozen who attended a Mankato stop Wednesday that rather than foster healthy competition and good outcomes, private health insurance companies create exceptionally high cost, poor medical outcomes and leave too many uninsured.

There are not normal supply-and-demand tensions at work in the private insurance sector, they said, because people have little or no control over illnesses and aging. Insurance companies, focused on profit, not good health outcomes, deny coverage to those sick or who are likely to become sick and waste money trying to deny payments and limit treatments, said the physicians.

“Our system is the worst of capitalism and the worst of socialism,” Hochfeld said.

Dr. Barbara Blaylock said each primary physician spends an average of $63,000 a year on interactions and paperwork with the myriad insurance companies.

A single-payer system, they said, would reduce the 20 percent of health-care dollars wasted, ensure everyone is covered and focus more on good medical outcomes.

“We’re spending twice as much per capita than the second most costly system in the world and getting half the (good medical) outcomes,” said Dr. Bob Seward.

St. Peter resident Bob Idso told the panel about the insurance problems faced by most of his grown children. The only child with stable insurance coverage is his daughter, a military veteran. She’s covered through the single-payer, government-operated VA system — a system Idso is also covered by and praised as well run.

Two sons have off-and-on construction jobs that provide spotty insurance coverage. And a son in college, with Crohn’s disease and $60,000 a year in medication needs, will be forced off his parents’ insurance when he graduates. He’ll be looking for a job in the auto-body industry with hopes of employer-provided insurance coverage unlikely. Government-sponsored coverage requires months of having no insurance first and moving from home.

“It’s insane. It seems like the whole system is rigged against this kid. He’s a great guy,” Idso said.

Dr. Joe Eusterman, a University of Minnesota Medical School graduate, said the insurance and drug industries are “Swiftboating” health-care reform.

“I’m mad as hell about the lies and fear mongering being used to protect the status quo,” said the retired Eusterman, 79, who is driving his camper across the country as the group of doctors heads for Washington, D.C., on Dec. 30 and a hoped for meeting with President Obama.

“We’re in a war to restore America’s integrity and soul,” Eusterman said.

Dr. Gene Uphoff said that in spite of criticisms being leveled at reform, a majority of Americans and doctors favor coverage for everyone.

“Members of Congress are not paying attention to the needs of Americans and what they want.”

The industry group representing health insurance companies, America’s Health Insurance Plans, says its members support high-quality care and reform that extends coverage.

“Our community has proposed guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions, discontinuing rating based on a person’s health status or gender, and a personal coverage requirement to get everyone into the system,” says the group on its Web site.

“Countless physicians, hospitals and employers, and millions of concerned citizens agree that a government-run health care plan will dismantle employer-based coverage, bankrupt local hospitals, and break the promise made to the American people that those who like their health plan can keep it,” the group said.