Most of those in the audience were Willey’s patients, many of them elderly, who had been invited to attend Tuesday’s forum at the Orlando Gardens banquet center.

The event exemplifies the efforts underway by opponents of the federal health-care law, which is just beginning to go into effect. That includes calling for area voters to get to the polls on Aug. 3 and vote for Proposition C, which supporters say will allow Missouri to opt out of some of the federal health-care mandates before they go into effect.

Although critics, including the Missouri Democratic Party, say Proposition C can’t be enforced, supporters say that its passage will help set in motion a public clamor for repeal of the federal changes.

“It’s going to be a process, a multi-year effort,” said Mike Needham, chief executive for Heritage Action for America, the lobbying arm for the national Heritage Foundation and one of the sponsors of Willey’s forum.

Other than a lawsuit aimed at knocking Proposition C off the ballot, no organized opposition seems to be working to defeat it at the polls. State Democratic Party spokesman Ryan Hobart said the party doesn’t get involved in issues campaigns.

That’s not true of the Missouri Republican Party, which is solidly behind Proposition C, and the national groups that support repeal of the federal health-care law and helped put on Tuesday’s forum.

Also sponsoring the event was the American Freedom & Enterprise Foundation, as well as Willey’s organization called Innovare Health Advocates.

Former U.S. Sen. Jim Talent (left), R-Mo., honorary chairman of the American Freedom group (and one of Willey’s patients), was the moderator of the forum. The event also featured two speakers with Heritage, as well as a Republican candidate for Congress, St. Louis lawyer Ed Martin.

The forum’s title: “Obamacare’s Impact on Seniors…And Where We Go from Here.”

All the speakers advocated repeal of the federal health-care law and encouraged their audience to cast their votes for candidates — like Martin — who agree. Yard signs were available for those who wanted to declare publicly their opposition to the federal changes.

Said Willey to the audience: “Government is about to interfere with my ability to provide quality health care to each of you.”

A chief point of the two-hour session was that the federal health-care law relies on $500 billion in savings from Medicare over the next 10 years to help pay for the expansion of coverage.

The concern expressed by Willey, Talent and the other speakers was that those cuts will likely affect elderly already on Medicare.

Willey, for example, zeroed in on the Medicare Advantage program, which is run by private firms and has received additional federal money. Roughly 20 percent of Missouri’s Medicare recipients receive their coverage through the Advantage program. The federal health-care law calls for cutting federal payments to the private firms, beginning next year.

Willey and other speakers also discussed their concern about cuts in Medicare’s reimbursement rates, which Willey predicted will lead to physicians dropping their practices or no longer accepting Medicare patients.

Talent and the Heritage Foundation’s Robert Moffit told the crowd that the new law doesn’t call for rationing of care, but that they feared the cuts would result in de facto rationing.

Said Martin: “We have to fight this effort on as many fronts as we can.”

Interviews with some in the audience indicated that many simply wanted to know how their health-care coverage might be affected by the federal law. Several emphasized that they particularly like Willey, their doctor.

Willey said afterward that he had helped put together the forum because he was hearing concerns from his patients, particularly those on Medicare. “They’re afraid (and) I’m hoping that it eased their fears somewhat,” the physician said.

Several of the speakers, including Willey, said they hope that events like the forum will help mobilize voters — especially the elderly.

As the physician explained: “Let’s put their anxiety into action.”