WRAPUP 2-Obama looks for Republican healthcare backing

(For a TAKE A LOOK on healthcare, click on [ID:nN07323916])

* Republicans say legislation moving too quickly

* Budget office says more money needed to pay for it

* American Medical Association backs House bill

* Republican Senator urges Obama to be patient (Updates with details, budget office analysis)

By Kim Dixon

WASHINGTON, July 16 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama sought on Thursday to persuade Republicans to support overhaul of the U.S. healthcare industry, his signature domestic policy goal, as the measures moved on a fast-track through congressional committees with only Democratic support.

A handful of Democrats on one of the three House committees trying to fast-track the legislation said they also could not back the Democratic bill, but this was not seen as posing a major obstacle to its passage before both chamber recess in the next two to three weeks.

The focus in Congress remained on finding ways to pay for the estimated $1 trillion cost over 10 years, either through higher taxes or savings in the costly federal Medicare and Medicaid programs. The head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Congress had yet to find a way to pay for for the plan.

"The coverage proposals in this legislation would expand federal spending on healthcare to a significant degree and in our analysis so far we don't see other provisions in this legislation reducing federal health spending by a corresponding degree," CBO director Douglas Elmendorf told the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.

The House would pay for about $587 billion of its version with new taxes, including one on the wealthy that Republicans charged would catch small business owners in its net and cost more jobs during the recession.

Senate Finance Committee leaders met behind closed doors to thrash out ways to pay, including perhaps a tax on health insurers at a value of $100 billion over 10 years.

Chairman Max Baucus said he was dismayed that the White House opposed taxing as income the value employers pay for workers' health insurance. This would raise taxes for many wage earners.

"Basically the president is not helping," Baucus said. "He does not want (to change) the exclusion, and that's making it difficult."

After two days of closed-door meetings, Baucus said they were still seeking a bipartisan agreement. "All participants clearly want to reach an agreement," Baucus said.

SEEKING BIPARTISAN BACKING