State Senate Republicans unveiled a health plan yesterday that is similar in some ways to a plan favored by House Democrats and Gov. Ed Rendell but strikingly different on a key issue: providing health care to more uninsured people.

The Democrats' plan, which would require higher taxes, would extend affordable health insurance to small businesses and the uninsured, with subsidized coverage for people with low incomes.

The GOP plan, by contrast, would enhance care available at community health centers; promote a program for hospitals and specialists to donate their services to help the uninsured; and create a high-risk insurance pool for those who cannot find coverage elsewhere. The plan, known as HealthNET PA, does not call for a tax increase.

At a news conference at the Capitol, Sen. Rob Wonderling, R-Montgomery, highlighted the differences between the plans, calling the Pennsylvania ABC plan, a House Democratic proposal supported by the governor, "an archaic and lethargic approach to health care rooted in retro-New Deal thinking."

But Bob Caton, a spokesman for Rep. Todd Eachus, a Luzerne County Democrat and chief sponsor of the House proposal, said HealthNet PA was aptly named "because it's full of holes -- holes uninsured people can fall through."

Republicans contend their plan would help more people at a fraction of the cost of the Democrats' proposal.

The plan "improves access to care, not just insurance," Sen. Ted Erickson, R-Delaware County, chairman of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee, said in a statement.

Jessica Seabury, executive director of the Pittsburgh-based Consumer Health Coalition, expressed concerns about the time needed to bolster health centers and develop volunteer health care networks, saying uninsured Pennsylvanians "needed help yesterday."

The GOP plan offers "a patchwork solution," she said. "It's not insurance and financial security."

The plan would be funded with about $100 million a year from surpluses in a fund used to help doctors pay their malpractice insurance costs. That assistance through the MCare abatement program was suspended earlier this year after the governor and House Democrats linked reapproval to progress on extending health coverage to the uninsured. The Senate proposal does not link the two issues.

Other GOP plan provisions would help doctors get continuing medical education credits for volunteering to provide care, establish a loan forgiveness program to encourage doctors to practice in the state and create initiatives to help low-income uninsured people or their physicians obtain free or low-cost prescription medications, including cancer drugs.

The proposal also would establish a "mini-COBRA" program to allow former employees to continue to receive coverage through companies with 2 to 19 workers. And it would give lawmakers more input into the proposed merger of Highmark with Independence Blue Cross.

Some provisions are similar to those proposed by Democrats, including measures to promote electronic health records, allow insurers to refuse payment for medical mistakes resulting in serious health problems, and offer parents the option of continuing to provide coverage for their dependent children up to age 30.

Those areas of agreement can form a basis for discussion, said Ann Torregrossa, deputy director of the state Office of Health Care Reform. But she noted, among other concerns, that the GOP plan, unlike the Democrats' plan, does not try to obtain millions of dollars that could become available through federal matching funds to help the uninsured.

Sen. Don White, R-Indiana, chairman of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee, predicted that no agreement would be reached before the Legislature's summer recess. He suggested that details of the GOP plan should be aired around the state.