TALLAHASSEE -- A success rate of less than a tenth of a percent might not sound like much, but to Gov. Charlie Crist it's campaign-trail bragging material for healthcare reform.

Crist's new Cover Florida healthcare proposal has signed up only 3,757 people in a state with nearly four million uninsured. Meantime, an estimated 77,250 Floridians have lost health-insurance coverage since Cover Florida began releasing statistics in March.

Yet Crist touts Cover Florida as a ``national model'' and as a private-sector alternative to the government-run insurance plans of congressional Democrats and President Barack Obama.

``What's happening in Washington, I don't agree with,'' Crist said recently. ``We found a better way in Florida, by wanting to include the private sector to participate more.''

Under Cover Florida, Crist's administration persuaded insurance companies to offer stripped-down health plans for stripped down prices. The more coverage a person receives, the more he pays. That, Crist says, gives consumers more choice and less government.

Crist's government-is-the-problem tone, which has become more pronounced as he began stumping for U.S. Senate, contrasts sharply with the approach he took to stabilize insurance rates on homes, businesses and other properties in 2007.

Then, Crist advocated for more government-run insurance to compete with private hurricane insurance companies as they raised rates and dropped customers. Now, Crist opposes government-run insurance, while health-insurance companies are raising rates and dropping customers.

At least one-fifth of Florida's population lacks health coverage. Florida's uninsured rate is the third-highest in a nation where about 50 million people are uninsured, according to the latest U.S. Census figures.

Crist argues that health insurance costs are so high in Florida because state government requires insurers to guarantee expensive procedures and lengthy hospital stays. By lifting some mandates, the government allowed six insurance companies to offer less expensive Cover Florida plans.

But since the government still helps ration benefits in Cover Florida, some question the conservative bonafides of Crist's plan, which is outlined on the website coverfloridahealthcare.com.

Two types of plans are available, catastrophic and preventive. Some plans have average premiums as low $50 a month. Others have deductibles as high as $5,000.

But for some Floridians, the costs might still be too high. For others, the limited services might not be worth the price, said R. Paul Duncan, a professor and director of the University of Florida's Department of Health Services Research, Management and Policy.

``Part of the problem is that when people think about insurance, they think about comprehensive coverage,'' Duncan said. ``So when they see limited coverage to accomplish a price reduction, they add it up and say, `I don't think so . . . If I'm going to buy insurance, I want it to completely cover me.' ''

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But Duncan says Cover Florida deserves some credit, noting: ``If people are going from nothing to something, that's better than nothing.''

Crist says his proposals became instant successes the moment they helped one person.

Crist's campaign website gives scant indication of the limited enrollment in Cover Florida.

``I signed into law a nationally recognized, market-based health care program to provide low-cost health insurance for nearly four million uninsured Floridians,'' it says.

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