DeMint, 57, who before entering politics owned a small marketing business and struggled to negotiate affordable health-care coverage for his dozen or so employees, said fixing the system has been one of the main causes of his career. But he considers Democratic plans a threat to freedoms Americans treasure.

Since arriving in Washington in 1999 as a House member, DeMint has been on a crusade against the bureaucracy of the federal city. He sought to abolish the federal tax code and once staged a rally in his home town of Greenville, where he tossed all 17,000 pages of the Internal Revenue Service tax code from a hot-air balloon.

"I'm working with a lot of people up here [in Washington] who don't really understand the health insurance market," he said. "I don't think anyone in his Cabinet, or Obama himself, understands the business. I've been around doctors all my life.

"We need some real health-care reform," he added. "So, Mr. President, get your hands off of my health care and let's make health insurance work better."