HARRISBURG — Republican state senators are promoting a health care plan they say will help more people for less money than a proposed expansion of government-subsidized insurance championed by Gov. Ed Rendell — partly through millions of dollars in tax credits.

More than half a million uninsured, low-income Pennsylvanians would obtain access to health care under the "HealthNet PA" plan, which would cost the state $100 million, Sen. Edwin Erickson, chairman of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee, said Tuesday. After the Senate GOP unveiled the plan, the Rendell administration questioned whether the proposal would give the uninsured access to the full range of services they might need.

The package of more than a dozen bills calls for an expansion of health insurance coverage that is more limited than the plan envisioned by the Democratic governor, coupled with measures intended to broaden the network of free health clinics for the poor and provide insurance coverage for people who cannot get it because of pre-existing health conditions, among other things.

The plan that Rendell supports passed the Democratic-controlled House 118-81 on March 17, but it has sat, untouched, in the Senate since, opposed by Erickson and the Senate GOP, who control the chamber. That plan would expand state-subsidized health coverage to about 270,000 uninsured Pennsylvanians who meet certain income guidelines. The cost of the program, known as Pennsylvania Access to Basic Care, is expected to exceed $1 billion by the 2012-13 fiscal year.

The Senate GOP plan would be financed annually by existing revenue from a 25 cents-a-pack cigarette tax and surcharges paid by motorists cited for moving violations. Both sources raise $225 million a year for a state subsidy that currently helps doctors buy medical malpractice insurance, but only $125 million a year is needed to support the subsidy, Erickson said.

Expanding health insurance for the uninsured has been the cornerstone of Rendell's broad initiative to improve the quality, availability and affordability of health care that he has pushed since January 2007. But the expansion has stalled amid a dispute with the Legislature over how to pay for it. The roughly 767,000 adults who lack health insurance account for 8 percent of all Pennsylvanians, and only half of them are unable to obtain coverage, said Sen. Jake Corman, R-Centre.

Under the GOP plan, half of the money would finance tax credits for businesses that donate money for the expansion of community health clinics, and $5 million would go toward tax credits for people who use health savings accounts. Other pots of money would benefit doctors and hospitals, such as paying off school loans and underwriting the cost to computerize hospital medical records.