Kirk pushes alternative health care plan

For years, U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk has laid out health care reform proposals. Now running for Senate, he uses some of those same ideas to offer a counter to President Barack Obama's push.

On Tuesday, before laying out his own plan for the 15th time to voters, the Highland Park Republican gave an explanation for why his proposals didn't move forward when Washington, D.C. was under GOP control: George W. Bush.

"He had other priorities," Kirk told reporters at the town hall event in a Northbrook hotel.

Kirk's plan, proposed by a group of Republicans who position themselves as moderates, focuses heavily on enhancing tax-free health savings accounts and providing tax subsidies for purchasing coverage.

Kirk also wants to allow people to buy insurance from plans anywhere in the country and impose limits on awards in malpractice cases, among other reforms.

Much of the proposal is unlikely to gain much traction in the Democrat-dominated Capitol.

But it is an alternative Kirk hopes voters will support as he has made his opposition to Democratic health care reform a centerpiece of his Senate primary bid, holding town halls across the state as well as several teleconferences.

Kirk was keen to make sure those in attendance Tuesday knew he was not against "reform," just Obama's version of it.

"I believe we should not have the quick answer on health care. We should have the right answer," he said. "We think we really ought to have reform."

Of the more than 200 residents in attendance at Tuesday's event, most seemed to support Kirk's opposition to Democratic proposals grinding through Congress.

They cheered as he blasted proposed cuts to Medicare funding and tax hikes. Kirk also said he sees the current move in the Senate for cooperatives to provide additional coverage as just another version of government-run health insurance.

And in disagreeing with those who stood up Tuesday for the Democratic proposals, Kirk said the nation simply can't afford to expand government health care or raise taxes to support it.

At one point, a woman asked the crowd to be willing to give up something to provide health care for those who can't afford it.

"Give up your Starbucks," she said.

She was roundly booed.

"Just think about it as a spiritual" matter, she told Kirk, about covering everyone.

Kirk responded, "I don't think we should raise taxes on people to pay for spiritual reasons."

On other topics, Kirk told reporters he supports a surge in troops in the Afghanistan war.

"I hope we keep the momentum up," said the Naval Reserve officer who served briefly in the country last year.