ASHINGTON - Staking his claim to an issue important to voters but often ignored by his own party, Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush yesterday proposed a plan to help many of the nation's poor get health insurance.
His health care proposal is the centerpiece of a broader plan called the New Prosperity Initiative, which also would help needy people buy houses, save money for education or other goals, and slash their taxes.
''Instead of helping people cope with their need, we will help them to move beyond it,'' Bush said in Cleveland. ''With the same energy and activism that others have brought to expanding government, we must expand opportunity.''
It was Bush's first major policy speech since wrapping up the Republican presidential nomination last month, and he used it to burnish his credentials as a centrist and a ''compassionate conservative.''
Making his first detailed proposal on health care, Bush turned to a subject often raised by voters in town hall meetings during the recent Republican presidential primary campaign but seldom by the candidates themselves. By comparison, health care overhaul was a main theme of the Democratic primary contest.
Bush's main proposal would use tax credits to help families buy private health insurance, and could extend coverage to as many as 18 million Americans. The cost would be $39.6 billion over five years, according to campaign spokeswoman Mindy Tucker.
That would make Bush competitive with Gore. Although the Gore campaign did not have an estimate of how much it would spend over five years, aides said Gore's plan would spend $146 billion over 10 years and would extend health care to about 12 million of the nation's 45 million uninsured.
Gore aide Douglas Hattaway said Bush did not make health care a priority in Texas, and said his proposed tax credit ''is not really going to help the people who need help the most.''
He criticized the proposal as an attempt to distract attention from Bush's health care record in his state. Texas, for example, ranked last in the country for the percentage of people with health insurance.
Tucker countered that Texas has ''dramatically'' increased spending for health care, increased access to care, and enacted patient protections.
Bush's tax credit is aimed at the roughly 36 million Americans who are working but have no health insurance. They are stuck between those who receive health insurance through work, and those who do not work and receive health coverage from the government.
It would provide an annual tax credit of up to $1,000 per individual or up to $2,000 per family to help them buy private insurance. The credit would be available to pay as much as 90 percent of the insurance premiums, and taxpayers would get it in the form of lower taxes or larger refunds. Those who did not owe or pay income taxes would get a check.
