As politicians in Sacramento worked Monday to hammer out a healthcare plan, a group of anti-big government activists vowed to do everything they could to stop it.

"I don't like what is coming out of Sacramento," said Ventura County Supervisor Peter Foy. "Do I know what is good for me, or the government?"

At a news conference near Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center, Foy announced he is the state chairman for the new California chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a nonprofit group that advocates for free markets and less government.

The healthcare reform plan approved by the Assembly on Monday, which would assess employers anywhere from 1 percent to 6.5 percent of payroll to cover uninsured workers, is a prime target for the group that has chapters in 20 other states.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, D-Los Angeles, have said the plan will insure as much as 70 percent of uninsured Californians while helping to pump billions into the state's healthcare system.

But opponents at Monday's rally found the cost of the $14.4 billion plan staggering as the state is already grappling with a projected $14 billion deficit.

"We want to know where that money is going to come from," said David Spady, state director for the group.

"It's irresponsible to debate a proposal with that price tag."

In Sacramento, Assemblywoman Patty Berg, D-Eureka, said the funding for the healthcare package is designed to stand separate from the state budget.

"Our new healthcare system will stand on its own two feet," she said.

Spady and Foy said if there were less government interference and more companies competing with each other, the price of healthcare would drop. More government is not the answer, they said.

A spokeswoman for the group, which also fights other big-government issues in other states, said health insurance should be more like car insurance — covering catastrophic events but leaving it up to the individual to pay for general maintenance.

Foy said the group, which has a $500,000 budget in California, will start to take on other issues around the state in the future.

If the healthcare initiative makes it through the Senate, it will still have to be voted on in a referendum.

Though Monday's news conference was planned and the media was invited, the group did not ask the hospital if it could hold the event there. Minutes before it was scheduled to start, hospital officials politely asked members to hold the meeting on a nearby public sidewalk.

Tom Lucas, who owns Performance Nursery in Moorpark, was one of the roughly 15 people who showed up to watch the announcement.

He said if the initiative passes, he could pay an additional $150,000 in taxes and said he supports what the group is doing to fight the proposal.

"We can't support the state in a runaway situation," he said.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.