By Eric Berman

Governor Mitch Daniels has sketched an outline of the health care bill he'd rather have seen, instead of the White House-backed law he calls "misguided."

At a Republican-sponsored forum in Washington, Daniels repeated his prediction the health care law will accelerate soaring health care costs, not control them. He argues true reform would replace employer-based insurance with medical savings accounts, where people keep whatever money they don't spend on basic care.

"What we call health 'insurance,' isn't," Daniels says. "Insurance is a system where you collectively protect each other against unexpected events, not the fully expected event of a physical, or the routine illnesses and injuries of life."

Savings accounts are a keystone of the state's Healthy Indiana Plan, which Daniels has warned will be superseded by the federal law. He argues the incentive of having money left over leads people not to skimp on needed preventive care, but to shop for the cost savings he says are missing from the current model.

Daniels was invited to speak by the Congressional Health Care Caucus, chaired by Texas Representative and physician Michael Burgess. The caucus's website says the group has no formal membership, but is open to all congressional Republicans.

Along with Burgess, two House members and an assortment of medical industry representatives attended the forum.

Congressional Republicans, as well as Daniels, have advocated repealing the health care law. But while Daniels maintains the country would be better off without the law than with it, he cautioned Republicans that any repeal bill ought to be paired with a fresh attempt to reform the system. He says there's widespread agreement the health care system is broken, and says the unity on that point should have made last year's debate a golden opportunity to fix it.

Instead, Daniels argues, the Democratic bill continues what he says is a fundamentally flawed model of employer-based insurance in place for more than 60 years, and compounds the problem by expanding Medicaid eligibility.

He predicts the law will force more employers to drop coverage, and leave people fewer insurance options to choose from.