WASHINGTON — When Republicans take President Obama up on his invitation to hash out their differences over health care this month, they will carry with them a fairly well-developed set of ideas intended to make health insurance more widely available and affordable, by emphasizing tax incentives and state innovations, with no new federal mandates and only a modest expansion of the federal safety net.
It is not clear that Republicans and the White House are willing to negotiate seriously with each other, and Mr. Obama has rejected Republican demands that he start from scratch in developing health care legislation.
But Congressional Republicans have laid out principles and alternatives that provide a road map to what a Republican health care bill would look like if they had the power to decide the outcome.
The different approaches will be on display Feb. 25, when lawmakers from both parties are scheduled to go to Blair House, across the street from the White House, for a televised clash of health policy ideas.
The Republicans rely more on the market and less on government. They would not require employers to provide insurance. They oppose the Democrats’ call for a big expansion of Medicaid, which Republicans say would burden states with huge long-term liabilities.
While the Congressional Budget Office has not analyzed all the Republican proposals, it is clear that they would not provide coverage to anything like the number of people — more than 30 million — who would gain insurance under the Democrats’ proposals.
But Republicans say they can make incremental progress without the economic costs they contend the Democratic plans pose to the nation. As one way to encourage competition and drive down costs, Republican members of Congress want to make it easier for insurance companies to sell their policies across state lines, an idea included in a limited form in the Democratic bills.
Republicans would offer federal money as a reward to states that achieve specified reductions in premiums or in the number of people without insurance.
Republicans would provide federal money to states to establish and expand high-risk pools, for people with chronic illnesses who cannot find private insurance at an affordable price.
Republicans also contend that changes in state medical malpractice laws could lower costs and slow the growth of premiums. However, some of these proposals — like federal limits on damages for pain and suffering and punitive damages — are potentially in conflict with the Republicans’ emphasis on federalism and state autonomy.
In contrast to the bills passed by the House and the Senate, which would remake the health care system, Republican leaders favor a more modest approach.
Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, said he and his colleagues were skeptical of “grand legislative policy schemes” and favored “a step-by-step approach” focused on lowering health costs for families and businesses.
“It is arrogant to imagine that 100 senators are wise enough to reform comprehensively a health care system that constitutes 17 percent of the world’s largest economy and affects 300 million Americans of disparate backgrounds and circumstances,” Mr. Alexander said.
The Republican health care agenda can be inferred from bills they have offered in the last few years and from their criticism of Mr. Obama’s proposals and of Democratic bills passed by both houses of Congress last year.
Republicans want to expand the use of health savings accounts, to cover routine expenses for people who enroll in high-deductible health plans. Democrats denounce such accounts as a tax shelter for higher-income people.
Many Republicans want to expand the role of private insurance companies in Medicare. Insurers already manage Medicare’s prescription drug benefit, and Republicans see that as a model.
Republicans agree on the need to slow the explosive growth of Medicare, but say the savings should be used to shore up Medicare, not to help finance a new entitlement program.
Democrats said the Republican proposals would do little to solve the crisis in health care. The proposals are “as skimpy as a hospital gown,” said Representative Lloyd Doggett, Democrat of Texas.
Representative George Miller, Democrat of California, said, “If the Republicans’ health care plan was a plan for a fire department, they would rush into a burning building, and they would rush out and leave everybody behind.”
Like Democrats, Republicans are divided on some questions, including the taxation of employer-provided health benefits.
Some Republicans, like Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, would replace the tax-free treatment of health benefits with a refundable tax credit for the purchase of insurance — an idea similar to one advanced in the 2008 presidential campaign by Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona.
Other Republicans say that eliminating the current tax break for employer-provided insurance would amount to a tax increase and should be opposed.
Some Republicans, like Mr. Coburn and Mr. Ryan, would encourage but not require states to set up health insurance exchanges, or marketplaces, where consumers could compare and buy coverage. The exchanges would require insurers to offer coverage to all applicants, regardless of their age or medical history. Insurers participating in the exchange would have to offer at least the same benefits made available to members of Congress.
While Republicans generally oppose any new entitlement or tax increase, they do have some areas of potential agreement with Democrats. They agree, for example, on the need to emphasize wellness and preventive health programs; to provide more transparency for price and quality data on doctors and hospitals; and to speed the approval of lower-cost generic versions of high-cost biotechnology medicines.
Many Republicans would also join Democrats in requiring insurers to let dependent children stay on their parents’ policies through age 25 or 26.
Democrats and Republicans share another goal: making it easier for small businesses to buy insurance. The House and Senate bills would offer tax credits for two years to businesses with 25 or fewer employees to help them buy coverage.
Republicans would help small businesses band together and buy insurance through trade associations and professional societies.
But Democratic lawmakers, like consumer advocates and many state officials, oppose Republican suggestions that such small-business health plans should be exempt from state regulation, including requirements for the coverage of specific services.
In a letter to the White House on Monday, the top two House Republicans, Representatives John A. Boehner of Ohio and Eric Cantor of Virginia, said members of their party would be “reluctant to participate” in the meeting with Mr. Obama if the bills passed by the House and the Senate were the starting point. The American people have “soundly rejected” those bills, they said.
Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the senior Republican on the Budget Committee, welcomed Mr. Obama’s invitation. But like many in his party, he expressed concern that the session would be used as “an arena for political theater.”