America needs to move from a money-oriented HMO health system to one that emphasizes the individual and stresses prevention instead of acute care, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said yesterday at a health forum in Bedford.

"Health is essentially moral; people believe that it is a matter of health that you can't put money first," Gingrich said at the program, called Exploring Trends in Consumer-Driven Health Care.

"On the other hand, if you put their life first and as a result they stay healthier, they don't mind that it's cheaper," added Gingrich, who served as the keynote speaker.

Dozens of health care workers and business people came from across the state to attend the forum at The Events Center at CR Sparks.

The forum was hosted by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Hampshire.

Gingrich, who founded an organization called the Center for Health Transformation, advised New Hampshire residents to ask presidential candidates coming through the Granite State about overhauling the health care system.

"What are you going to do now, not in 2009," he offered as a question for voters to ask.

Gingrich drew strong applause from the audience when he said, "Let's fix these problems now. We need solutions more than ambitions."

He didn't say if he plans to join the candidates on the campaign trail in the coming months. Gingrich said last fall that he is considering the possibility of running for the Republican nomination for president in 2008.

He was asked in a press conference following the forum to comment on a recent Time poll that showed three out of five Americans disapprove of the job the president is doing.

"Well, I think the country wants to see very dramatic reforms," he said. "I think the country looked at the results of Katrina and felt that government at all levels had failed. The city of New Orleans had failed, the state of Louisiana had failed, the federal government had failed."

Gingrich also cited excessive spending in Washington, dealing with the "irreconcilable wing of Islam" and illegal immigration as indicators that the American people want dramatic changes.

As for what went wrong with the HMO approach, he gave the example of intervening early to treat an obese child.

Offering more exercise and better nutrition early on would help prevent the child from becoming a diabetic.

Under the HMO system, the child would languish, he said.

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