WASHINGTON - Senate Finance Committee Democrats are taking aim at the excise tax on high-dollar insurance premiums that is the central funding source for the health overhaul legislation proposed by Finance panel chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.

A majority of Democrats on the committee have proposed changes that would reduce the impact of the tax or exempt some favored group, according to a list of amendments released ahead of a committee meeting to consider the health bill slated for Tuesday.

To replace the revenues that would be lost from slimming down the insurance tax, some including Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W. Va., are seeking to revive a proposal first put forward by President Barack Obama to reduce itemized tax deductions for the wealthiest.

Baucus has already signaled that changes to his proposal are likely even before the formal process of offering amendments gets under way next week. The Finance session is important because it will test support from Democrats and one vital Republican - Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine - for a more centrist version of health system overhaul.

Snowe also is seeking changes to the excise tax, and filed an amendment to lessen the tax's impact on plans that cover people older than 55.

Rockefeller and others are proposing to exempt "high-risk professions," like coal-mining, from the tax on gold-plated plans, while Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., would exempt plans that cover retirees.

As expected, Rockefeller also plans to aim at the bill's omission of a public health insurance option. Rockefeller plans to introduce an amendment that would include a public health insurance option that would initial pay doctors and hospitals based on current Medicare payment rates.

An amendment offered by Snowe would establish a "fallback" insurance plan offered by a non-profit government entity in states in which a specified proportion of residents do not have access to a low-priced private insurance plan. Often referred to as a public option "trigger," the language would take effect only if less than 95% of residents have access to a plan that costs 13% of their income or less.

Another Rockefeller amendment would strip out a part of the bill that would provide federal start-up funding for non-profit health care co-operatives. Rockefeller argues that the co-ops are unproven on a large scale and that co-ops currently in place operate much like private insurers.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., also offers an amendment that would scrap the bill's section co-ops and put in place a public health insurance option. Schumer's version of the public plan would not base payments on Medicare and would not require hospital and would require the plan to support itself financially after the federal government paid initial start-up costs.

Another of Rockefeller's amendments would increase the requirements for "actuarial value" for insurance plans in the exchange, in order for them to cover more of a patients' costs. Rockefeller seeks to fund this and other amendments with a cap on itemized deductions, which was proposed earlier this year by President Obama but saw little enthusiasm in Congress.

A number of senators filed amendments making health insurance more affordable to low-income people. One such amendment, offered by Kerry and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., would increase federal subsidies available to those from 100% to 400% of the federal poverty level.

The Kerry-Menendez amendment would be paid for by closing unspecified "corporate tax loopholes."

Republicans seem likely to use their amendments to make the charge that the Baucus bill would break President Obama's campaign promise not to raise taxes on the middle class. Sens. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, Pat Roberts, R-Kans., and John Ensign, R-Nev., filed an amendment that no fee or penalty in the bill - including penalties for failing to purchase insurance - would apply to an individual making less than $200,000 or a married couple with income of less than $250,000.

Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., also filed amendments to strike taxes on insurers, drug-makers, medical device makers and clinical laboratories from the bill. But no Democrat has taken up that cause, according to the amendment list.

Grassley, who on Monday issued broad criticisms of the Baucus bill, also has an amendment that would remove a requirement that individuals carry insurance.

Another Grassley amendment would, during an economic recession, suspend a requirement that employers provide insurance coverage or help pay federal costs of insuring their employees.

Two other Grassley amendments would aim to blunt the effect of proposed cuts in the bill to privately-run Medicare plans. The bill currently seeks to curb federal subsidies to the plan and establish a new bidding system that would likely cut the federal government's payments to private insurers to run the plans.

One of the amendments would require the Department of Health and Human Services to certify that the Medicare Advantage changes would not affect access to the plans in rural areas, while another would require the department to certify that the bill would not result in a loss of benefits to seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans. Both requirements would have to be met for the bill's changes to the program to take place.