TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) _ Former Sen. Bob Dole is returning to his home state for a forum on health care that's part of a search for bipartisan proposals.

Dole said Friday that he hopes the Bipartisan Policy Center will have some influence with the next U.S. president.

Dole and three other former Senate majority leaders helped found the center, and it's sponsoring the forum. The other sponsor is the Institute of Politics that bears Dole's name on the University of Kansas campus.

The forum begins at 12:30 p.m. Monday.

Dole said in a telephone interview that the problem with past efforts to reform the health care system is that officials in one party didn't reach out enough to members of the other party. The result, he said, is years of policy Band-Aids.

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