WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- President George W. Bush touted what he called his common-sense plan to reform the U.S. health care system, while campaigning Monday in Muskegon, Mich.
"I have a practical common-sense plan to make health care available and affordable; a practical way to make sure health care is available and affordable, and a way to make sure good doctors keep practicing medicine," Bush said.
Bush, who advocates medical malpractice reform as well as portable Health Savings Accounts as ways to reduce costs to consumers and health care practitioners, frequently cites cases in which doctors have closed their medical practices because of crushing liability costs.
"We have a difference of opinion in this campaign," Bush said of his opponent, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry. "I'm running against a fellow who has got a massive, complicated blueprint to have our government take over the decision-making in health care."
Bush cited a study produced by the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank with strong ties to the Bush administration, which said Kerry's plan, "would cost the taxpayers $1.5 trillion in new government spending."
"Not only is (Kerry's) plan going to increase the power of bureaucrats in your lives, but he can't pay for it unless he raises your taxes," the president said.
