CHEYENNE – Gov. Dave Freudenthal is plugging for one of his pet projects – a health insurance pilot project – in hopes it doesn’t fall short again in the waning days of the Legislature’s Budget Session.

The governor told chamber of commerce executives from across the state this morning that his proposal, Senate File 62, is a modest step toward trying to control both the rising costs of health care and health insurance.

Later, he hit the same theme during his weekly news conference in the state Capitol, saying he thinks the undercurrent of opposition he’s hearing in some quarters is “irrational.”

“If we don’t get a handle on health care costs, it’s going to bankrupt not just this government but this society,” he said, noting that health care costs keep rising 11 percent to 15 percent a year, far faster than government revenues or worker wages are rising, even in good times. “We’ve been filling the gaps by going into debt,” he said.

Freudenthal’s proposal would establish a small pilot project to demonstrate how to reduce health care costs by emphasizing preventive care and accountability. People in the pilot would pay part of the costs of their insurance and therefore have a stake in the program.

Last year, the proposal sailed through the Senate only to fail narrowly in the House at the end of the session after some House members complained it was “creeping socialism.”

The governor said he thinks his proposal is hardly socialism, since participants would be paying part of the costs, as opposed to Medicaid, which is entirely government funded.

Earlier, at Business Day at the Legislature, sponsored by the Wyoming Chamber of Commerce Executives, the governor traded jokes with House Speaker Colin Simpson and Senate President John Hines. The chamber execs also heard from the three announced Republican candidates for governor at lunch.