WRAPUP 3-US Senate panel takes up healthcare affordability

* Senate Finance panel opens debate on healthcare bill

* Republicans say committee being pressed into vote

* Affordability, public option issues in spotlight (Adds quotes, details throughout)

WASHINGTON, Sept 22 - U.S. Senate Democrats pushed to make insurance reforms more affordable for workers and Republicans decried what they called a rush to judgment as debate opened on Tuesday on a sweeping healthcare overhaul.

Senate Finance Committee Democrats said low- and middle-class families would pay too much under Chairman Max Baucus's plan, and Republicans complained they were being pressured into hasty decisions after months of bipartisan negotiations failed.

Committee members will consider some 564 potential amendments to the proposal over the next few days as the raging battle over President Barack Obama's top domestic priority entered a new phase in Congress.

"The cry of impatience has won out," said Senator Charles Grassley, the panel's senior Republican and a member of the "Gang of Six" negotiators who failed to reach agreement. "They have put moving quickly over moving correctly."

But Baucus said it was time to move ahead on a revamp of the $2.5 trillion healthcare industry, which is Obama's top domestic priority. The finance panel is the last of five congressional committees to take up a healthcare bill.

He said his "common-sense" plan took the best ideas of lawmakers in both parties with the goal of attracting the 60 votes needed to overcome procedural hurdles in the 100-member Senate.

"This is our opportunity to make history," Baucus said. "The question is whether we can seize the opportunity and change things for the better."

Obama has pushed for a sweeping healthcare overhaul that would rein in costs, create competition for insurers and expand coverage to many of the 46 million uninsured people living in the United States.

SLOWED BY BATTLES IN CONGRESS

The healthcare overhaul has been besieged by critics and slowed by battles in Congress, where elements of the insurance and healthcare industries have lobbied against parts of it.

Many of the panel's amendments were designed to reduce costs and make insurance more affordable. To help ease those concerns, Baucus will adjust his bill to make it easier for people at all income levels to afford insurance under his plan.

In shifts incorporating several Democratic-sponsored amendments, Baucus will expand subsidies to help purchase insurance, reduce penalties for not buying insurance and increase the level where an excise tax on high-cost insurance plans kicks in.

Baucus would pay for the changes with $28 billion in surplus from the bill. The Congressional Budget Office estimated last week the proposal would reduce the deficit by $49 billion over 10 years.

Under the plan Baucus unveiled last week, all U.S. citizens and legal residents would be required to obtain health insurance, with subsidies offered on a sliding scale to help people buy it.

The plan would create state-based exchanges where individuals and small businesses could shop for insurance. The proposal also would levy fees on healthcare companies and insurers, tax high-cost insurance plans and expand Medicaid, the healthcare system for the poor.

It does not include a government-run insurance option included in the other four bills in Congress, but substitutes a nonprofit cooperative provision as a way to create competition for insurers.

"I think we can do better," Democratic Senator Ron Wyden said. "This bill does not hold insurance companies accountable."

The White House released research on Tuesday showing insurance premiums have risen faster than inflation in every U.S. state -- by between 90 and 150 percent in the past decade, while consumer prices have risen 28 percent.

Republicans said the measure would amount to a government intrusion into the healthcare sector and urged Democrats to slow down. "This bill is a stunning assault on liberty," Republican Senator Jon Kyl said.

Senator Olympia Snowe, another negotiator and the only panel Republican seen as a possible supporter of the measure, said she regretted what she described as a premature end to the talks but said the bill was "a solid starting point."

Republicans have offered 292 amendments, including proposals to eliminate the individual insurance requirement, allow purchase of insurance across state lines and eliminate the fees on healthcare industries.

Snowe offered an amendment making the government-run public insurance option an emergency option if coverage remained too expensive.

Her "trigger" option would establish a government-run plan in any state where affordable coverage -- as defined by a portion of an individual's income -- was not available to 95 percent of residents.