MOORE — The state’s — and the nation’s — health care system needs a serious tune-up, a panel of Cleveland County leaders said July 1.

Speaking at a forum sponsored by the Oklahoma branch of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), six area business and community leaders said gridlock and partisan politics was causing major problems for the nation’s health care system.

The event was part of the AARP’s Divided We Fail campaign — a grassroots campaign, AARP officials said, which is designed “to break political gridlock so that all Americans have affordable, quality health care.”

“Many of these questions are very difficult,” said Shari Kinney, administrator of the Cleveland County Health Department, “and there are many different answers, but we must decrease our costs and focus on preventative health care.”

Changing people’s behavior, she said, would have many positive benefits on the state’s health care system and improving residents’ health.

Bill Pierce, president of Baptist Retirement Village Retirement Communities, agreed.

“We need to look at increasing wellness efforts and developing new incentives,” he said. “Things like that go a long way toward improving health care.”

Pierce said officials also need to increase their efforts in controlling costs.

“There is a great deal of waste in the system,” he said.

Kinney said the state’s poverty level also is part of the problem.

Half of the residents in Oklahoma who are 65 or older would be living below the poverty line if they didn’t have Social Security, she said.

“Poverty is increasing and many county families are in ‘crisis mode.’ They are not thinking about the future. They are just looking at ‘what can I do today to get by.’”

She cited rising gas prices as an example.

“More and more, we have people walking to our clinic, because they can’t afford to drive.”

But while poverty may be increasing, public concern about the state’s health care crisis hasn’t been.