TOPEKA — A House subcommittee today kicked off a series of roundtable discussions on health care costs.

More than 20 representatives of insurance companies and hospitals responded to Rep. Brenda Landwehr’s invitation to talk about what is driving health care costs, how to keep them from rising so fast and how to make them more transparent to consumers.

“We make it so difficult for people to understand what they’re getting,” said Landwehr, a Wichita Republican who chairs the House Health and Human Services Committee.

Brad Smoot, a lobbyist for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, the state’s largest health insurance provider, said that a rising demand for services from an aging and increasingly sicker population is driving up costs.

“We’ve got a lot of Kansans making poor health decisions. That is what is driving health care costs,” Smoot said, referring to the increasing number of Kansans with chronic illnesses associated with smoking or obesity.

Others said inefficiency in the health care system is a big contributor.

Patrick Patterson, a vice president with Hospital Corporation of America, cited as an example the number of different insurance company forms with which medical providers contend . He said each of the insurance plans that his 11 Kansas and Missouri hospitals do business with has its own form. One plan has six different forms.

“It’s a hugely expensive process for me to undertake redundantly with every single health plan,” Patterson said.

Health care costs in the United States totaled approximately $2.5 trillion in 2009, 17.6 percent of the gross domestic product.

Landwehr suggested that consumers might be able to make more economical choices about the insurance coverage and health care services they purchase if they had comparative information about the true cost of services and the quality ratings of hospitals and doctors.

But several members of the panel said making the system more transparent would be a complicated process that in the end might not make it much easier for consumers.

Andy Allison, executive director of the Kansas Health Policy Authority and a health economist, was among those sounding a note of caution.

Allison said health care is so complicated that most people will probably never be equipped to make truly informed purchasing decisions.

“That’s the fundamental problem with health care, people really don’t know what they’re buying,” he said.

Two more roundtable discussions are scheduled. On Feb. 5, the subcommittee will hear from more hospital administrators. On Feb. 12, doctors, nurses and other frontline providers will be featured.