WASHINGTON — Greg Newman of Hallowell told a Senate committee Wednesday about the importance - and difficulty - of covering the rising cost of health insurance for his 50 workers at Newman Concrete Services. "I can't afford to ask my employees to pay more and I can't afford to pay more," he told the Senate Small Business Committee. "In the near future, it's going to become simply impossible."

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, the committee chairman, invited his testimony as part of a hearing about association health plans. Her goal is to allow small businesses to band together across state lines to negotiate lower prices for health insurance.

"If we want to get serious about helping the uninsured, which I think is long overdue, we should start by focusing on small business," Snowe said. "This is not a radical new policy we're talking about here."

Concerns about the proposal have prevented Congress from approving legislation that the House has approved seven times. Concerns focus on who will prevent disreputable insurers from cheating their customers and who will prevent insurers from serving only the healthiest workers.

"I have to say it, but I think this is a lot of wishful thinking," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

The problem that prompted the legislation is the country's 45 million uninsured people, nearly two-thirds of whom work for small businesses or depend on someone who does.

Health-care premiums rose 59 percent since 2000, while wages rose only 12.4 percent during the same period, officials said. Small businesses often find it too costly to get health insurance for their workers because they can't negotiate savings the way larger corporations and unions can.

Newman said that when he started offering workers health insurance in 2000, it cost about $21 a week for each worker who took the insurance. It now costs $100 per week.

"For a small business like mine, that is a pretty hefty bill to pay, and I am not sure how much longer I can last without getting some sort of relief from these prices," he said.

Snowe's legislation would create federal regulation for small-business health plans that wouldn't be subject to state regulation.

To be eligible, business groups would have to have been established for three years for reasons other than providing health insurance.