Sen. Judd Gregg offered firm opposition to proposals for a government-run health insurance option yesterday, saying such a public plan would make it impossible for private insurers to compete and would inevitably undermine the nation's health care system.

"As a practical matter, a government plan puts a bureaucrat between you and your doctor," Gregg said, "and it leads inevitably to a system like they have in England and Canada, a system that reduces innovation, that leads to delays and leads to rationing."

Gregg is the sole Republican in New Hampshire's congressional delegation. He has also decided not to run for re-election next year. At the two forums he attended yesterday - at a Salem senior citizen center and before the Portsmouth Rotary Club - he met with generally friendly audiences. Small crowds of demonstrators gathered at both sites to encourage him to support a public option for health insurance.

But Gregg was unstinting in his criticism of such an option, which many Democrats consider a cornerstone of any successful reform. Gregg argued that a government-sponsored plan would result in price controls and several harmful side effects: lower reimbursement rates for doctors, delays in care for patients, and fewer incentives for researchers to develop new drugs and procedures.

Gregg pointed out a handful of areas in need of reform: the 47 million Americans lacking health insurance, the high percentage of national spending devoted to health care, and the sharp annual increases in Medicare and other health spending. The last area, Gregg said, was reason enough for reform.

"Our country is facing an economic nightmare of huge proportions in about 10 years," Gregg said. "A massive meltdown."

Gregg referred to a proposal he co-sponsored in the Senate that would allow uninsured Americans to purchase catastrophic coverage

through state-based insurance pools. Gregg said a successful reform package would also focus on encouraging more preventive health care, such as early screening for diseases and cash incentives for healthy lifestyles. He also said malpractice lawsuits have helped run up the cost of health care.

"The fact is, the trial attorney bar has an iron grip on the Democratic Congress," Gregg said.

Gregg dismissed the charge by some Republicans, including former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, that Democrats want to establish "death panels" to judge whether a person could receive care. Gregg described talk of death panels as "hyperbole."

"There's no death panels that I'm aware of," he said.

Gregg said reducing the number of people without insurance should be a priority. But he said a majority of the uninsured are wealthy enough to buy their own insurance, are eligible for government-sponsored plans such as Medicaid, are eligible for coverage through their employer but decline to take advantage of it, or are illegal immigrants.

When he arrived in Salem, Gregg was greeted by about a dozen pro-reform demonstrators outside the senior center. One of the demonstrators asked Gregg to support Obama's efforts at reform.

"I want to work with him, but I want to make sure he does it right," Gregg said.

Jaime Contois, New Hampshire organizer for Working Families Win, said a public option is needed if health insurance is to be made more affordable. She said she and other pro-reform demonstrators hoped to "dispel myths" about public insurance plans.

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