PORTLAND - Former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber is asking the Oregon Legislature to consider a broad conceptual approach to reform the state's health care system.

Roughly one year ago, Kitzhaber created the Archimedes Movement to get public say on how to reform the health care system. The group, which included the input of about 40,000 citizens, health care leaders and others, decided that all Oregonians should have access to health care and the state could deliver it more effectively than the current system.

The Oregon Better Health Act is a product of that group's thinking. The act, if passed, would take the federal and state money currently being spent on health care and try and use it more effectively.

“It's an opportunity to really fix the system,” Kitzhaber said.

The proposal created by Kitzhaber's group will head to Salem on Friday to be drafted and eventually introduced to the Legislature. Several state legislators from both parties have expressed support for the project.

If passed, it would trigger a request to the federal government to grant Oregon the congressional authority to control state and federal health care dollars. Oregon would then design a system to provide physical, mental and other health benefits for all of its residents. The act would also create a process that allows the public to have a say on how the health care system would work.

“I think it's remarkable that we are utterly unable to change our direction (in health care),” Kitzhaber said. “I think part of that is that there isn't a place or an opportunity where people can engage as citizens...the Oregon Better Health Act is the beginning of that process.”

He said the act will lead to a “shared vision” for what a health care system should be.

The act is one of several major health care reform proposals being considered in Oregon's legislative session.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski has pledged to extend health insurance to all children in the state, a Senate commission has developed a plan to extend insurance coverage to all Oregonians and there are reform projects from several other groups.

But rather than be seen as competing issues, leaders from each of the groups say they are working together to reform the state's health care system. And while Kitzhaber's project focuses on funding and conceptual approaches to what is needed in a health system, other efforts focus more on the nuts and bolts of a universal health program for the state.

“It's time for us in a thoughtful, statesmanlike way to step up and move forward with a program that...really works,” said Sen. Ben Westlund, D-Bend, who is chairing the Senate Committee on Health Care Reform.

The committee met for the first time Wednesday.

Oregon's U.S. senators have expressed their support for Kitzhaber's project but it is likely to encounter hurdles in Congress. Kitzhaber said the state faced major challenges in Congress when it created the Oregon Health Plan and tried to get similar waivers to allow state control of health care dollars already being spent in existing programs like Medicaid.

However, he said other states, such as Washington and Colorado, are considering similar bills. And the debate in Congress could stir the possibility for national health care reform.

“This is beginning of the adventure,” Kitzhaber said.