WASHINGTON (AP) – A small business group turned up pressure on the Senate Wednesday to curb health care costs, but the group’s solution is hotly disputed.

A petition drive organized by the National Federation of Independent Business urges lawmakers to let small employers buy into national health insurance plans. The idea is for companies to band together, pool their risks and get more affordable rates for employees.

Such plans are limited now to individual states, but small companies want to expand the plans nationwide.

“Small businesses deserve to be treated equally and equitably with large corporations and unions,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican who chairs the Senate Small Business Committee. “They’re the engine driving job creation in this country.”

The GOP-controlled House has voted six times to allow the national plans, but the more narrowly divided Senate has balked at the legislation.

The trouble is that national plans would be exempt from state regulations, and many states insist on higher levels of coverage that include such services as mammograms, mental health and limits on rates for older or sicker policyholders.

But backers of the national plans say the dynamics in Washington are shifting in their favor. At a Capitol Hill news conference with NFIB, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao pointed out that President Bush endorsed the issue in this year’s State of the Union address.

“The president and this administration care deeply about expanding access to quality, affordable health care,” Chao said.

Snowe and Missouri GOP Sen. Jim Talent predicted they can win supporters if they can get a vote scheduled. Both serve on a Senate leadership task force on the uninsured. They point out they have added restrictions to the bill to satisfy various concerns.

“As frustrating as the various lulls in progress have been, each year the bill gets further,” Talent said. “Last year was the first time the bill had been introduced in the Senate. … This year was the first year that a president has talked about it in the State of the Union address, which is one of the reasons so many more people are now interested in it.”

Foes of the national health plans warned that if supporters really are gaining momentum, small businesses are in trouble. They say lack of state regulation could invite fraud and could draw younger, healthier workers into the plans, leaving older, sicker workers behind with higher premiums.

Both sides of the debate have powerful allies. Proponents have the White House, while opponents have most of the nation’s governors and other state officials.

Opponents also include Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry, who is running for president, and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

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On the Net:

Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov

NFIB: http://www.nfib.com

Blue Cross Blue Shield: http://www.bcbs.com

AP-ES-04-01-04 1752EST