Rep. Jerry McNerney will have a telephone town hall meeting next week to discuss health care reform.

Residents of McNerney’s District 11 can call his offices at 476-8552 or 925-737-0727 by Wednesday to be added to the callback list. From 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. that day, McNerney’s office will call as many registered numbers as possible to hear from people. Spokeswoman Sarah Hersh said that if a call is not returned because of time restraints, the office would follow up with the caller later to answer questions.

“It’s certainly an issue that folks are interested in hearing from their congressman about,” Hersh said. “We’re going to provide opportunities for constituents to share those thoughts.”

Hersh said now that McNerney is home this month, he has been planning meetings to talk with locals. In addition to the telephone town hall, he will meet with Mountain House residents on August 15 to talk about foreclosure prevention.

Hersh noted this meeting will be a continuation of the health care listening tour McNerney started last month, when he met with seniors, doctors and other groups throughout San Joaquin County.

Tracy resident Kathy Breeden said she was upset when she called McNerney’s office earlier this month to ask if the congressman was holding a meeting about health care, finding that at the time, nothing was planned.

Breeden called the Tracy Press, and Hersh announced the scheduled the town hall telephone meeting after Hersh was asked why McNerney had yet to schedule a meeting on health care.

Hersh said that the number of calls McNerney’s office has taken in regards to health care has been about equal to the inquiries about other issues.

“He should be talking about health care, that’s a number-one national priority right now,” Breeden said.

Contact Tracy Press reporter Justin Lafferty at 830-4269 or jlafferty@tracypress.com.