Jon Russell, the owner of a family care clinic in Washougal and an announced candidate for Congress next year, called on U.S. Rep. Brian Baird on Wednesday to vote against a “government takeover of private health care.”

Russell, a Republican and Washougal city councilman, hopes to unseat Baird, the six-term Democratic incumbent in the 3rd Congressional District. Russell said Congress is failing to give fair consideration to “a private sector solution for affordable health care” and called on Baird to “do the right thing on behalf of the small businesses and patients in Southwest Washington” by opposing a greater government role.

President Obama said Wednesday night that he wants to see comprehensive health reform legislation passed by Congress before the end of the year. It’s not clear when a reform bill will come to a vote on the House floor.

Asked to describe his plan for health care reform, Russell said lawmakers should consider the role that nonprofit organizations such as health care cooperatives could play in making health care available to more Americans.

He also said small businesses should be allowed to “pull together across state lines” to form insurance pools.

His clinic, which opened in January, works with the Salvation Army and St. Vincent de Paul to subsidize the cost of care for the uninsured, Russell said.

“My position is that we are never going to get a true health care remedy coming from Washington, D.C., because in order to make that happen, you will have to get the trial lawyers, medical professionals, business interests, government and insurance companies all to the table as honest brokers,” he said in an interview.

“There’s not a health care crisis as much as we have politicians going back to the drawing board for government solutions,” he said.

Baird took exception to Russell’s contention that there is no health care crisis in the United States. He noted that 47 million Americans are uninsured, 14,000 more Americans lose coverage every day, and many of those won’t be able to find new coverage because of limits on coverage of pre-existing conditions.

He noted that he was the lead House Democratic sponsor of the Healthy Americans Act, a comprehensive plan that would guarantee every American coverage comparable to that enjoyed by members of Congress.

Baird said some of the things Russell proposes, such as nonprofit health cooperatives, already exist and would be encouraged under a House bill now under consideration.

A clinical psychologist by training, Baird said he would support a government-run public option for health care coverage, but only if the government competed with private insurance companies to cover Americans “on a level playing field.”

He said he saw no specifics in the press release on health care reform that Russell issued Wednesday.

“There’s not beef, there’s not bun, there’s only wrapper,” Baird said.