A key part of President Bush's re-election strategy is promoting an "ownership society" in which Americans are more in charge of their financial lives.

"Ownership brings security and dignity and independence," Mr. Bush said in his acceptance speech last week at the Republican National Convention.

The goal is to wean Americans from being dependent on government to becoming owners of their own security, including homeownership, retirement savings and health care dollars.

Are Americans ready for such stewardship? I'd like to think that many are, given the history of this country.

"We always have been and are owners," said Michael Davis, a finance and economics professor at Southern Methodist University.

"From way back when," he said, "private property and ownership have been the central features of how our economy works.

"It goes back to the notion that if you give someone well-defined property, that will be good for them and good for their neighbors."

But not everyone is prepared to take on that role.

"There are a lot of Americans for whom these choices will be fairly overwhelming," said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at SMU.

Those are the "people who live paycheck to paycheck, who have modest savings - let alone investments - and little familiarity with market kinds of choices."

The core elements of Mr. Bush's plan include:

*Strengthening Social Security by giving younger workers the option to save part of their Social Security payroll taxes in a personal retirement account.

Benefits for current and near-retirees wouldn't be affected.

"With the huge baby boom generation approaching retirement, many of our children and grandchildren understandably worry whether Social Security will be there when they need it," Mr. Bush said.

"We must strengthen Social Security by allowing younger workers to save some of their taxes in a personal account - a nest egg you can call your own and government can never take away."

*Instituting refundable tax credits of up to $3,000 for families and $1,000 for individuals to help low-income Americans buy health insurance policies.

*Encouraging more Americans to use health savings accounts. The accounts, created along with the recent Medicare legislation, are sort of a cross between a flexible health-care spending account and a 401(k).

You contribute pretax money, and you can roll over any extra money for the future

Like a flex account, you can use the money to pay for health care costs that insurance doesn't cover, including some premiums.

Unlike a flex account, you invest the money as you see fit, it grows tax free, and you can roll it over from year to year, or to a new job.

To contribute to such accounts, you must be younger than 65 and you must be enrolled in a health plan with high deductibles.

You'll use the accounts to pay for medical expenses up to your deductible, or for other expenses that aren't covered. Once you meet the deductible, your health policy will cover you for the rest of the year.

Mr. Bush has proposed that premiums for high-deductible policies be tax deductible.

He plans to offer a tax credit to encourage small businesses and their employees to set up the health accounts and to provide "direct help for low-income Americans to purchase them."

Cutting spending

Both health care proposals are aimed at giving Americans more control over their health spending. The hope is that they would spend their health dollars more prudently, keeping health care costs down.

"It can force people to increase their deductibles," said Venkat Eleswarapu, a finance professor at SMU. "When you have somebody else paying for it, people tend to overconsume it. When you pay for it out of your own pocket, you would be more careful about spending it."

That has been borne out in studies, health care experts say.

"Higher cost sharing tends to reduce the use of services," said Gary Claxton, director of the Healthcare Marketplace Project at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that studies health care issues.

Putting poor at risk

But cost sharing may work to the detriment of some groups.

"Cost-sharing strategies can have a disproportionate impact on poorer people," according to a report released last year by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

"Moreover, cost sharing applied to a service, such as physician visits, does not discriminate between services that are medically needed and those that are more discretionary. These two aspects of cost sharing put low-income people at special risks, especially considering their often poorer health status."

Mr. Bush has also proposed encouraging Americans to save in Retirement Savings Accounts and Lifetime Savings Accounts.

'Ownership mindset'

Such "ownership society" proposals are a long time coming, said Matt Moore, senior policy analyst at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a Dallas conservative think tank that has proposed some of the initiatives.

"We need this ownership society to empower people, to give people options," he said. "The different programs that the president is proposing will help get people into the ownership mindset."

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