With his health-care proposal hitting turbulence, President Barack Obama singled out the insurance industry at his town hall meeting in Raleigh on Wednesday.

Obama said at Raleigh's Broughton High School that his plan would prevent insurance companies from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions or doubling people's premiums over the next decade.

Bob Greczyn, CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, the state's largest insurer, was quick to react.

"It was disappointing that President Obama used so much of his time in North Carolina bashing insurance companies," Greczyn said in a statement. "We don't believe a government-run plan is necessary to achieve the reform Americans need."

Bill Atkinson, president and CEO of WakeMed cut short a vacation to hear Obama speak.

"I personally support what he has got on the table," Atkinson said. "Most people are worried about change. He is up against some well-entrenched special interests, including my own industry."

Tom Fetzer, chairman of the state Republican Party said the president's plan wouldn't work.

"There are many ways to cut the cost of health care without encouraging the complete overhaul and making government a competitor with the private sector," Fetzer said.

Many who left the town hall meeting Wednesday said they still had questions about the plans working their way through Congress.

But it was at least nice to hear about the plan directly, said Sundaw Miller, 42, who runs the Adara Spa across the street from Broughton High School.

Miller said she hears her clients talk daily about their fears about what would happen with health care.

"It was nice to hear from the horse's mouth what he plans to accomplish," Miller said.

State employees and community activists are planning to protest a health care conference Friday morning.

The State Employees Association of North Carolina will be on the west side of 400 S. Salisbury St. on Friday at 9 a.m. to protest a meeting between health care lobbyists and Triangle CEOs, including Bob Greczyn of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina.

The group will be calling for health care reform and a public option to make it more affordable.

"SEANC is demanding that Blue Cross put North Carolina citizens first instead of fighting a public health care option that will provide affordability, choice and competition to Blue Cross' 72.5 percent market share in North Carolina," SEANC stated in a press release.

The rally comes on the heels of another protest by SEANC last week outside of Blue Cross's corporate offices in Durham.

Update: SEANC has sent out a corrected press release, noting that the event will be at the Sheraton Hotel on Salisbury Street in Raleigh.

The Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce is adding its voice to the great health care debate of 2009.

The Chamber will hold a Health Care Forum at 8 a.m. on July 24 at WakeMed Raleigh Campus, Rob Christensen reports.

Among those participating in a panel discussion will be Jack Bailey, senior vice president, of GlaxoSmithKline, Bob Greczyn, president and CEO, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina; Bob Seligson, executive vice president and CEO, North Carolina Medical Society; and Hugh Tilson, senior vice president, North Carolina Hospital Association.

The forum comes as numerous groups have been mobilizing as Congressional debate reaches a pivotal point on President Barack Obama’s proposals to reform health care.

Rufus Edmisten, an institution in Tar Heel politics, visited home Wednesday, after spending a couple of weeks battling Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

The former secretary of state and former attorney general has been at WakeMed receiving treatment for the disorder which attacks the body’s immune system, leaving a person weak in the legs and arms, Rob Christensen reports.

"It makes you wobbly," said Linda Edmisten, his wife. "The nerves have to heal themselves. The signals sent to the feet are not quite getting there."

Edmisten, who is now an attorney and lobbyist, has been receiving immunoglobulin therapy.

This is the same disease that struck actor Andy Griffith in 1982. Edmisten said her husband took courage in fighting his disease after reading an essay Griffith wrote on the subject.

"It's completely curable," Linda Edmisten said. "Over the last 25 years since Andy Griffith's battle, they have come up with a therapy to knock this out."

Edmisten, who was initially diagnosed with the disease on Aug. 24, still has a week or more physical therapy at the hospital before he can return home permanently, she said.

Rep. Larry Womble has been discharged from WakeMed.

The Winston-Salem Democrat was taken to the Raleigh hospital last night after feeling ill on the House floor Monday night. But he has returned home to Winston-Salem for follow-up care, a spokesman for House Speaker Joe Hackney said today.

Womble "will not be in session today," said spokesman Bill Holmes. "We will provide more information as it becomes available. Thank you again for your concern about Rep. Womble."

Womble, 66, is a seven-term Democrat and a retired educator.