"We're going to have to tighten our belts and prioritize. We have imperiled Social Security and put Medicare on the edge by carrying this debt," he said. "Fifty percent of the people we've talked to in Utah don't have any health care. What I hear being proposed, by the senator and this administration, is a Band-Aid approach to a system that's on life support."

Van Dam said Congress should let the federal government negotiate with insurance and drug companies for bargains, something that is currently off-limits.

Bennett countered that rising health care costs will never be stabilized until Congress changes current tax laws so that there is more of an incentive to reduce prices.

"We used to have 11 companies produce flu vaccine. We now have four," he said. "They tell me it's because they're afraid of being sued."

Van Dam said he also has talked with drug company representatives about the flu vaccine shortage, but he's being told that there's "no profit" in making the preventive medication.

"We sit as the only civilized, first world country that doesn't provide universal health care for its citizens," he said. "We are using health care dollars for things it was never meant to do."

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E-mail: nperkins@desnews.com