President Bush has outlined a wide-ranging health care agenda and says the U.S. health-care system is in need of reform.

Speaking in (the mid-Western U.S. state of) Wisconsin, Mr. Bush said the federal government must fix the health care system where it is failing. But he stressed the reforms should not result in, what he called, "centralized government-controlled medicine."

Mr. Bush says the United States leads the world in the development of medicines and medical technologies. But he says there are still 40-million Americans without health insurance.

Mr. Bush announced tax credits of three-thousand dollars per family to ensure the poor are insured.

He maintained that all Americans must be able to choose health care that meets their needs at a fair price.

He also urged Congress to pass a patients bill of rights to protect everyone. Mr. Bush added patients' right to privacy must be preserved and that genetic information should not be used as a basis for discrimination.

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