By DOUG WILSON

Herald-Whig Senior Writer

NAUVOO, Ill. -- U.S. Senate candidate Steve Sauerberg has a plan that he believes would give people access to health care without putting the nation in hock.

Sauerberg has been a family physician for more than 25 years and says the Democratic health care proposals would be disastrous. Now the Republican nominee challenging U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, Sauerberg shared his views Wednesday night at the Hancock County Lincoln Day dinner in Nauvoo.

"The Democratic proposals either call for socialized medicine or a complicated conglomeration of bureaucracies," both of which would gobble tax dollars and create new problems, Sauerberg said.

His idea is to offer families a $5,000 tax credit that could only be used to buy health insurance policies. A free-market health care system would then be able to compete locally, by state, by region or nationally, he said.

Sauerberg said competition would help bring health costs down. Physicians and treatment centers would have to publish their fees so that patients can compare costs before treatment.

Because the plan would involve individual ownership of health coverage, Sauerberg said, it would help both workers and employers. He said employer-based insurance coverage is a nightmare because employees change jobs too often. Employers are not experts on health insurance plans but need to be as they try to manage things if they provide coverage now.

Sauerberg also wants to see healthy living tax credits for people who keep their health care costs down. He wants to create a Medicare and Medicaid fraud task force to tackle the $60 billion in fraud and abuse that's estimated each year.

"I'm in favor of life simplification" with a simpler, fairer tax system and a simpler health care system, Sauerberg said.

While taxes are too high, so is federal spending, Sauerberg said.

"Most people know that government is inefficient. There's not too much disagreement about that," Sauerberg said.

Part of that inefficiency is built into a system that makes it difficult to dismantle or reduce programs once they're established. If programs are dropped and government costs decline, Sauerberg said taxes can come down. When businesses and people pay fewer taxes they'll help create more jobs and better jobs.

Sauerberg said he wishes he could tell people that the United States is ready to withdraw troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, but that would lead to a take-over by radical Islamists who want to destroy the United States.

Border control is the one part of the immigration situation that Sauerberg said has fairly high consensus with the U.S. populace.

"People don't understand why we're not controlling the border," Sauerberg said.

Sauerberg said Durbin's liberal political philosophy does not represent Midwestern values. His goal is to let people know where Durbin stands on the issues.

"I think I'll need $3 million or $4 million" to get the word out, Sauerberg said.

He will remain in Western Illinois today, speaking tonight at the Adams County Lincoln-Reagan Day dinner between 5 and 7:30 p.m. in the Quincy Senior and Family Resource Center.

-- dwilson@whig.com/221-3372