CHEYENNE - Wyoming's four Republican candidates for the U.S. House agree something needs to be done about the cost of health care but want it kept in the hands of private insurance companies.

In separate interviews, Mark Gordon, 51, a Buffalo rancher and businessman, and Cynthia Lummis, 53, of Cheyenne, a former state treasurer and legislator, said they support federal legislation that would allow private insurance companies to form interstate insurance pools.

Bill Winney, 58, a retired Navy captain who lives in Sublette County, believes young people, who think they are bullet-proof, need a tax incentive to entice them to get health insurance coverage.

Winney also wants portability so that employees can take their health insurance with them from job to job.

Michael Holland, 55, a Green River pathologist, wants a return to the system in effect before the 1940s and 1950s, when people were responsible for getting their own health insurance.

Since then, employers have provided their employees a health insurance benefit package.

"This would put employees back in the driver's seat," Holland said. "They make better shoppers when they're looking for their own insurance rather than their employer working on their behalf."

Although individual policies are high priced today, Holland believes costs would drop in the long run from the change he proposes.

"If we have a totally different market, the free market principles would come back into play and the insurance would likely be less expensive than it is today," he said.

"Not everyone wants insurance," Holland said. "For people in their twenties, that's the last thing on their mind."

The federal government, he said, needs to get out of the health care and health insurance picture.

Winney said he is confident that the insurance industry can figure out how to do a better job with the right set of laws and accurate data.

As a ship commander who traveled extensively in the west Pacific, Winney had many conversations with his medical crews about the health care systems of other nations.

"The United States has the best health care system in the world," Winney said. "The issue is how do you pay for it?"

He said he favors portability of health insurance because the post-World War II legacy of insurance tied to employment doesn't quite fit today's workplace market where people move from job to job.

"People should be able to buy health insurance that is theirs, that is not tied to their jobs," he said.

In addition to interstate insurance pools, Gordon wants standardization of health insurance plans so the insurance companies can compete on specific areas of coverage.

He also would encourage companies to lower customer co-payments for maintenance drugs, such as medications for diabetes and high blood pressure.

"We recognize people who take care of themselves through preventive care and wellness programs," Gordon said.

He also wants adequate medical tax deductions for taxpayers who are employed but carry their own insurance and promotion of health savings accounts.

Gordon said he worked a while for Apache Corp. and his wife worked for Abbott Laboratories.

Both companies had terrific health care programs compared to what they could afford as ranchers, he said.

Insurance premiums as ranchers have increased 12 percent to 18 percent a year several times in a row, Gordon said.

Lummis believes interstate insurance pools would help Wyoming more than any other state because of the low population.

The larger pool of premium payers should benefit from the economies of scale.

Lummis also supports the purchase of generic drugs, including those sourced from other counties as long as they are U.S. safety-tested.

"I want them additionally safety-tested here before they are distributed," Lummis said.

Federal employee retirement plans include health insurance that is superior to the retirement benefits military veterans receive.

Lummis wants to change that so the vets get the same benefits as federal employees.

She supports action at the state level but not the federal level.

For example, she supported tort reform at the state level but could not support tort reform limiting noneconomic - "pain and suffering" - damages in medical malpractice cases at the federal level.

"But the public didn't like it and so the public has spoken on that issue," she said.

She was referring to a proposed constitutional amendment to allow caps on damages that failed to get approval from voters several years ago.

She prefers using private insurance companies.

"The programs for health care that the federal government has now are broken," she said. "So why would we think federally dictated health care would provide a better result?"

"We can point to Medicare as an example of why government should not manage health care."

Contact Joan Barron at joan.barron@trib.com or by phone at 307-632-1244

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