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JUNEAU — State lawmakers are pushing back against a proposal by Gov. Sarah Palin to do away with the state’s certificate of need legislation regulating health care facilities.

Reps. Mike Kelly of Fairbanks and Peggy Wilson of Wrangell, both Republicans, expressed strong concerns with the governor’s plan at a news conference Monday.

Both described major problems in the health care system, including high costs and limited access to doctors, but questioned whether relaxing state regulations would decrease costs as advocates promise.

Kelly said he liked the idea of reducing government’s role in health care, but he likened the governor’s proposal to souping up the engine of a Volkswagen without changing anything else in the car.

“I don’t believe the CON … can just be ripped out from under the system,” he said.

Wilson, who chairs the House Health, Education, and Social Services Committee, said she would be rolling out a substitute version of the governor’s bill on Thursday, when the bill is scheduled for a second committee hearing.

She said the governor has already offered amendments to the bill that would roll back the CON requirements over a period of years rather than all at once.

Kelly said after the news conference that he will introduce a separate bill today that would only remove the CON requirements for diagnostic imaging centers. He said he would prefer waiting to see what happens with the national elections this fall before doing anything, and was offering the bill as a compromise solution in response to the strong push to change the law.

Palin and others argue that removing the CON requirements would increase competition among health care providers and drive prices down.

Kelly, who has long served on the Fairbanks Memorial Hospital’s foundation board, argues it would allow doctors to “cherry pick” lucrative medical services and leave the hospital without the revenue it needs to provide less-lucrative services.

Palin’s bill, HB 337, would also set up a commission to develop a statewide approach to health care and an information office that would compile and publicize information about health care facilities across the state.

A companion bill, SB 245, was heard in the Senate last week.