Hunter Wilson/Daily News Dr. Rand Paul, a candidate for U.S. Senate, speaks Tuesday about health care at a town-hall style meeting at Western Kentucky University’s Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center.

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Bowling Green opthamalogist and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Rand Paul drew a full house Tuesday night at Western Kentucky University when he took on the issue of health care legislation at a town hall forum sponsored by the Political Science Department’s Political Engagement Project.

The event drew well over 100 people, filling the recital hall at the Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center, where Paul detailed his vision for health care reform, or what he refers to as “current efforts to socialize medicine.”

Paul, the son of 2008 presidential candidate Ron Paul, is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated next year by Jim Bunning.

The self-described “constitutional conservative” said health care should be based on free market principles instead of government involvement. Like other areas of the economy, health care is over-regulated and in need of serious market reforms, Paul told the group.

“Capitalism works and we have to figure out a way to get capitalism into health care,” Paul said.

Paul drew the strongest response from the group - which consisted largely of students - when he suggested that Congress take a more personal look at health care.

“I’ve often said put the veterans in the Congressional health care program and put Congress in the veteran’s hospitals,” Paul said. “Congress would figure it out pretty quickly then.”

Health maintenance organizations have driven a wedge between patients and doctors, are a product of federal legislation and special interests and have led to a distortion of the market causing higher prices, less coverage and more bureaucracy, according to Paul. The fact that the health care system is also based on a pre-pay concept also works against fair pricing, and higher deductibles would make a difference in driving prices down, he said.

By driving up costs, government has made it impossible for the poor to buy coverage, yet fewer poor people go without food and fewer would be forced to go without health care if capitalism drove the system instead of government, Paul said. Socialist medicine does not work because socialism does not work and when people blame the current crisis on the free market, they are making a mistake, he said.

In questioning Paul on his views, audience member Warren Campbell suggested there was more wrong with the system than could be fixed by capitalism, citing filmmaker Michael Moore’s health care documentary “Sicko,” in which Moore takes a number of 9/11 workers to Cuba to receive health care. Campbell also pointed out that agencies like the World Health Organization rank the U.S. health care system behind that of some third world countries.

“Michael Moore is confused,” Paul said. “I’m not seeing people go to Cuba to seek health care. I am seeing people from outside the country travel to the U.S. and places like Boston.”

Paul said that while the system faces exceptions, it is still the best system in the world. One hundred percent access for emergency care is one of its strengths, he said, and the argument surrounding access is vastly overstated. “What I hear from people in my clinic is complaints about cost,” Paul said.

Current legislation that would add more people to government health care cannot succeed because the system cannot financially support the numbers, according to Paul, adding that Medicare is already “going broke.”

Paul also said he supports making all medical expenses tax deductible, eliminating federal regulations that discourage small businesses from providing coverage and giving doctors the freedom to collectively negotiate with insurance companies and drive down the cost of medical care. Every American should be eligible for a health savings account and should not be required to obtain a high-deductible insurance policy before opening an HSA, Paul said.

Other candidates in the Senate race also will be invited to speak as part of the Political Engagement Project, according to Dr. Saundra Curry Audrey, WKU Political Science Department chair.