More than thousand people are now a little more knowledgeable on health care reform.

They packed into the Rothschild Pavilion for a town hall meeting put on by Americans for Prosperity Thursday night.

More than anything people wanted to know more about alternatives to government run health care, since many people at the meeting had big concerns about President Barack Obama’s proposed health care package.

Part of people’s concerns revolve around the one trillion dollar budget of the president’s plan, some around taking health care out of the private sector and making it public and others just had questions on how the plan would affect them.

A panel of five medical experts gave their opinions on government run health care at the meeting. They also shared why they would like to see health care stay in the private sector before answering questions from the public.

Keynote speaker and award-winning journalist John Stossel took no questions, but shared an opinion many at the town hall meeting had – that the government should not be given complete power over health care.

"I'd like to see it accessible to people that need it, but at the same time, seeing the government's track record with social security, Medicare, Medicaid, anything that they get their hands on, it’s a mess. So I don't have any confidence it’s going to get better if they take it over,” said James Merritt, a Northcentral Wisconsin resident who attended the meeting.

Unlike many other town hall meetings across the country, Thursday’s in Rothschild remained calm. But the meeting was not without controversy.

The crowd and panelists repeatedly brought up the absence of Congressman Dave Obey. He was invited to the town hall meeting but denied the invite.

That is unlike 2010 congressional candidate Sean Duffy, who was invited to the event and accepted, only to have the AFP rescind the invite without a public explanation.