WASHINGTON - Sen. Mike Crapo, the Idaho political leader closest to the national health care debate, plunged into it Tuesday, offering four amendments to the Senate's latest health care bill.

One would prohibit excise taxes on high-end health insurance for anyone making less than $250,000 - an amount matching what President Barack Obama has said would be the threshold for tax increases. Another would limit the amount states would have to shoulder in higher Medicaid costs.

The Senate Finance Committee met all day Tuesday, taking up hundreds of amendments to the health care bill unveiled last week by its chairman, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. Crapo is one of 10 Republicans on the committee.

"Unfortunately, with the time pressures being put on this, we're going to have a difficult time, so I doubt that a bipartisan work product is likely to work out, at least in the short term," Crapo told the Idaho Statesman.

He reiterated his opposition to the so-called public option, a government plan that would compete with private insurance plans, even though that isn't part of Baucus' bill.

Even if the committee achieves a bipartisan compromise - a possibility Crapo said remains slim - the bill could change dramatically once it leaves the Finance Committee. Crapo said there's nothing to stop the bill from being "immediately shifted to the left" if it is merged with a separate health care proposal released earlier this summer by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

"We continue not to have any reassurances or assurance that if we reach a compromise that that compromise will be honored," he said. "It would be like this: If someone was asking you to negotiate the price of a car, and they said, 'We'll agree on this price.' But as soon as they agree, they say, 'We're going to go see the manager.' And he's going to change the deal.

"So there's still a lot of distance to go. Certainly we're closer than we were."

Crapo said there's "significant amount of ground where we could find some common ground."

One of Crapo's four amendments called for limiting who would pay excise taxes on expensive health care coverage provided by employers, known as "Cadillac" plans.

"The president has consistently said that he's not going to raise taxes on anyone who makes less than $250,000, and this clearly has an excise tax that's going to instantly have an impact on the middle class," Crapo said.

But by the end of the day, Baucus had changed the proposal so that fewer people would have to pay the tax.

Baucus' plan also would exempt people in high-risk professions and retirees older than 55 from the tax.

Crapo's Medicaid amendment anticipates expansion of the program, which states administer and contribute to.

"I know they're trying to have the federal government assume a lot of that responsibility," he said.

"But A, there's still some amount of that expansion that would fall on the states. And B, as we move farther out, the states will pick up a bigger share of it in some circumstances."

That was disputed by the Democratic National Committee, which sent out "rapid response" e-mails to reporters disputing claims made by Republican senators soon after they spoke at the committee hearing.

Democrats said the bill would pay a greater share of the costs for people who are newly eligible for Medicaid based on the changes in eligibility.

Erika Bolstad: (202) 383-6104