MARIETTA - Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson's office has gotten 10,000 calls just in the last week on the president's health care reform proposals, and 9,000 of those oppose the plans, Isakson said.

So it would be fine with him if Democratic President Barack Obama visits Georgia next year to campaign for fellow Democrats, the east Cobb resident said.

"The way the numbers are going, that would not be any problem for me at all," Isakson said with a smile, during a discussion with the Journal's editorial board on Friday.

"Everybody in America's got it on their mind, and they're all worried," he said.

The stakes, Isakson said, could not be higher.

"The president's health-care plan is the largest unfunded mandate in the history of the federal government on the states," he said.

"You're talking about a $1.3 trillion dollar score that the president said he's going to pay for by reducing Medicare reimbursements and shifting billions of dollars in cost from the federal government to the states.

"Go check this year's state budget, see how much state money, not federal money, goes to Medicaid. You'll find it's $2.1 billion. The president's bill increases the eligibility for Medicaid by 50 percent. Half of $2.1 billion is $1.05 billion."

"It would force an increase of 33 percent in the state's share of Medicaid in one year, which would take us to almost 18 percent of the entire budget of the state of Georgia. They will tell you, 'Well, the federal government is going to pay for it until 2014.' That's just fine. What happens in 2015? And, the states already are in difficult financial situation," he said.

Isakson said the nine to one calls opposed to Obama's plan he's been getting nearly correlate with the number of people who have health coverage.

About 88 percent of Americans are covered by either Medicaid, Medicare or private health insurance, he said, based on best-guess estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.

"And they're all pretty happy that they have that. Medicare is pretty popular with seniors, Medicaid is a safety net for the poor women and children, and then everybody else has coverage through their company or their retirement plan or whatever," he said.

"They may not like all their coverage, they may not like insurance companies, they may not like having to go through gatekeepers, but they like it better than what they fear may come out of a government-managed program, and it is as clear as a bell that the goal of the bills that passed the Senate and the House committees is to drive people to a single-payer plan."

Isakson acknowledged the current health-care system has problems. The Census Bureau estimates that more than 45 million Americans do not have health insurance.

However, "I'm told by CBO that a third of the uninsured are coverable by either SCHIP or Medicaid, they just aren't registered. That's a failure of the system, but it's also the fact that they're living in poverty and they're not aware necessarily that they're covered."

SCHIP is the State Children's Health Insurance Program, administered by the federal Department of Health and Human Services. It aims to cover uninsured children in families with incomes that are modest but too high to qualify for Medicaid.

"There's another third that make over $75,000 a year that could buy insurance but don't. Those are the guys like me when I was 21 and a salesman and just thought I'd rather have a car payment than an insurance payment for health care 'cause I was going to live forever. We need to find attractive ways to get them into the risk pool because it is those that are healthy that help modify the cost of those that are not healthy. And those that are young help modify the cost of those that are old, but not in a government system."

Isakson, who next year will seek his second term in the Senate, said allowing "national risk pools" would enhance the current system. That way, health insurance would be more affordable for people who make their living as independent contractors, for example. They would essentially be buying insurance at a group rate, rather than an individual rate.

They "might be farmers or building contractors or real estate agents or insurance agents. There's a plethora of people who fall in that crack being an independent contractor and being prohibited from having coverage by the company they contract. That's an IRS rule, not an insurance rule," Isakson said.

Also compounding the problem, Isakson said, is portability. While federal law regulates most voluntary, employer-sponsored health insurance, about one-third of Americans have insurance that is overseen at the state level.

"One of the problems we got in the country is that 65 percent of the American people are insured under ERISA, and 35 percent of the insured are insured under the 50 different state insurance commissions, all of which have different rules, all of which have different mandated coverages, which prohibits portability of a policy when a guy transfers from Alabama to Georgia. Once he crosses the (state) line, it's a whole new jurisdiction on health insurance."

ERISA is the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, passed by Congress in 1974.

Larger risk pools likely would also mitigate trouble for those with pre-existing conditions, who often cannot get health insurance now, Isakson said.

The senator said some large corporations support the House proposal that would fine companies $750 for not providing an employee with health insurance.

"Which would you rather do - pay a $750 fine and not provide health insurance, or pay $5,000 and not pay a $750 fine?" he said.

"The reason WalMart has endorsed this is really very simple - it puts a billion dollars on their bottom line. The average cost of their catastrophic coverage for their employees is about $1,500. Well, $750 is half of that," he said.

Isakson predicted it would be mid-October before Congress acts on the various plans. The House will likely approve the President's proposal, though the Senate is a different story, he said.

"I don't know of anybody who's getting a majority of calls for it," he said of his fellow senators.

He and fellow Republicans are frustrated that their attempts to amend the Senate bill have been stymied by Democratic committee leaders, Isakson said.

"The President's driving this train. There were 500 and some odd amendments in the markup of the health bill in the Senate health committee. Most of those amendments were Republican amendments, and most of them beat 13 to 10, 13 Democrats and 10 Republicans. That dog won't hunt," he said.

"We're making a sincere effort to do everything that we can to do to be good legislators, but that doesn't mean you walk the plank just because there's a political movement to do something the American people don't want done," he said.

The issue is clearly one that will continue to ripple through the political parties for years to come.

"I don't know what the outcome's going to be. But if we beat the legislation, it has cost (President Obama) a lot of the political capital he had, and it has to be restored somewhere else. I don't know where else it gets restored. The most personal issue in a person's life is their health and their families," he said.

He could not predict how the issue would affect Marietta Democrat Roy Barnes' chance of returning to the Governor's Mansion next year.

"I don't know about that. The Democrats, though, this is a marriage that they have made and the outcome will have an effect on that marriage," he said.

As to how his party is strategizing to defeat President Obama in 2012, Isakson said there are several strong contenders.

"Mitt Romney is doing all the things that you would be doing if you were going to run. I think Haley Barbour is doing the same thing. Haley Barbour has done a magnificent job as governor of Mississippi," he said.