"The cost of health care is your premium and your lifestyle," said David Dahan, chief executive of Orgill Singer Insurance & Investments. "If you want to lower your premium, change your lifestyle."

Dahan, Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, Sen. Joe Heck, R-Henderson -- an emergency room doctor -- and Fred Harmon, president and chief executive of Human Resources Solutions, were featured speakers last week at a health care summit sponsored by the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce.

The speakers, who specialize in various aspects of health care in their public or employer roles, agreed that rising health care costs are a problem and offered varying suggestions.

The key is to get the employee or health care consumer more involved with the process, Dahan said.

"The consumer has no idea what health care costs," he said. "At the doctor's office the consumer finds out about how much it costs after the service is rendered."

Bringing the consumer into the process would encourage health care savings, but right now there is little incentive to save on health care costs because consumers assume their care is equivalent to a $10 co-payment, Dahan said.

"We need to stop equating health care with convenience and with co-pays, but equate it with consumerism," he said.

Consumers should know where the best hospital is for a particular procedure, what that hospital's survival rate is for that treatment, how the cost compares with other hospitals in the community and what other methods are available for treating the condition, Dahan said.

Dahan, who grew up in France under socialized medicine, said despite cost concerns, Americans have a good health care system because they can get care when they need it.

For Buckley, the solutions lie partly in legislative relief. She has been actively involved with health-related bills as a sponsor and a supporter.

One law that came out of the last session provides health insurance subsidies for small-business owners and working pregnant women.

"The small employer wants to offer health insurance and just can't afford to do it," Buckley said.

With that law, employers pay a portion of the premiums, employees pay a portion and the state bridges the gap, she said.

Another stride the Legislature made that could aid employers and employees is a Buckley-sponsored law that enables patients to buy their prescriptions from Nevada-licensed Canadian pharmacies.

"One of the highest drivers of health care costs is prescription drugs," Buckley said.

Heck said there are two problems with the U.S. health care system: access and affordability.

Nevadans have limited access to hospital beds because there is an overall shortage of beds, and many of the emergency beds are occupied by mental health patients awaiting transfer to a mental health facility, Heck said.

The state also has a shortage of nurses and physicians, which further limits access to care, he said.

Those problems contribute to rising health care costs.

Harmon said the solution to hefty health care costs is education.

"As an individual we are very reactive to our health as opposed to proactive," he said. "If we create healthier people and more educated people, then health care costs go down."

Bigger companies offer free physicals to employees because it improves their lives and limits the costs involved, Harmon said.

"Prevention is part of it, as is early detection," Harmon said.

Michelle Swafford covers health care and small business for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached by e-mail at swafford@lasvegassun.com or at (702) 259-2326.