Sen. Mike Enzi presented his 10-step healthcare plan to Casper community members Wednesday at the Community Health Center of Central Wyoming.

Enzi, R-Wyo., began promoting the plan in Wyoming on Monday as part of his "10 Steps, 10 Stops" tour, which also included stops in Cheyenne, Rawlins, Rock Springs, Pinedale, Lander, Worland, Lovell, Lusk and Gillette.

A member of the health, education, labor and pensions committee, Enzi said that he's working to get recognition for the importance of healthcare.

"I've been doing a couple of speeches a week on the floor of the United States Senate trying to get my colleagues involved in healthcare, to get them to do something - to do anything - to get the ball moving on getting some healthcare done," Enzi said. "And I'm having some success on that, and this tour is part of that."

Designed to "build on market-based solutions and strengthen current insurance programs" according to the senator's Web site, the plan includes steps to reduce healthcare costs for small business owners, an emphasis on preventative care, and ways to increase primary care options in rural areas.

Enzi said the plan was developed in separate steps so that each part had a greater chance of passing through the Senate. Had steps been lumped together in one large bill, senators would have a more difficult time agreeing on all of the points. This way, they can vote yes to some steps and no to others, depending on their specific views.

Colleagues in the Senate, Enzi said, expect a report on his discussions with constituents after the tour.

"There is no perfect bill," he said. "What I'm proposing here will not solve every problem. But it will solve some, and I think it will get people involved."

Community members voiced concerns about the proposed plan during the Casper meeting. One man worried about taxpayers picking up healthcare costs for illegal immigrants.

Another audience member asked Sen. Enzi why she couldn't have the same health insurance that he had. He answered that it was a financial issue - the cost would be too high if everyone had access to the federal employee health plan.

But, Enzi promised, the 10-step plan is designed to help regular people and should make healthcare better for Americans.

"The devil is always in the details," he said. "That's what we need to keep working on as we get some momentum on this."

Contact reporter Megan Lee at (307) 266-0589 or megan.lee@trib.com

Enzi's 10-step Plan

1. Eliminate unfair tax treatment of health insurance for all Americans, thereby expanding choices, coverage, and control over health care

2. Increase affordable options for working families to purchase health insurance through a standard tax deduction

3. Ensure affordable health insurance to low-income individuals through a refundable, advanceable, assignable tax-based subsidy

4. Provide cross-state pooling to reduce health care costs and increase accessibility for small business owners, unions, associations, and their workers, members, and families

5. Blend the individual and group market to extend important HIPAA portability protections to the individual market so that insurance security can better move with you from job to job

6. Emphasize preventive benefits and helps individuals with chronic diseases so America will finally have health care and not sick care

7. Give people the choice to convert the value of Medicaid and SCHIP program benefits into private health insurance, putting individuals in control of plans rather than the Federal government

8. Save lives and money by better coordinating health information technology to improve health care delivery

9. Increase access to primary care in rural and frontier areas by helping future providers and nurses pay for their education, and gives seniors more options to receive care in their homes and communities

10. Decrease the skyrocketing cost of health care by restoring reliability in our medical justice system through state-based solutions