BOSTON As the Senate opened debate yesterday on a major health care cost control bill, Republicans tried in vain to delay action until after the U.S. Supreme Court rules next month on the constitutionality of national health care reforms.

While the Senate rejected that proposal, Senate Minority Leader Bruce E. Tarr, R-Gloucester, argued that the pending court ruling, which could strike down the federal mandate to buy health insurance and cut federal Medicaid funds to the state, could have a major impact on the states health care system.

Sen. Richard T. Moore, D-Uxbridge, a chief proponent of the Senate bill, argued that no matter what the court decides, it would not have an impact on reforms being considered by the state to control health care cost increases or the existing state insurance mandate.

At the same time, Gov. Deval L. Patrick said limits called for in House and Senate proposals may not go far enough to curb annual health insurance premium increases in a state many consider to have the highest health care costs in the country.

The Senate was set to spend Tuesday and Thursday debating its version of sweeping cost containment legislation aimed at reducing family insurance premiums in the state by thousands of dollars each year.

Besides converting state subsidized and state employee insurance to global payment systems from the current fee-for-service system in the next two years, the Senate bill would also limit insurance premium increases to the percentage of annual increase in Massachusetts gross state product, a measurement of the economic output of the state and a counterpart to the gross domestic product.

Mr. Patrick made the case yesterday that the Senate plan and a similar House plan to limit increases to one-half percent less than the increase in the gross state product, could allow for excessive increases in health insurance rates.

I think the industry can do better than gross state product. I certainly could not imagine accepting GSP plus anything, Mr. Patrick said in a speech to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. He said the industry has already shown it can reduce costs more than that, without jeopardizing the quality of care.

Mr. Moore argued on the Senate floor that the Senate plan would not set up a large new state agency and that if the plan to link increases to the gross state product proved inadequate in the future, the Legislature could revise it to further limit increases or allow larger increases.

Both a plan offered by the governor and the Senate plan would convert state-subsidized and state-employee insurance plans to global payment systems that allocate per capita budgets to providers for annual care, replacing the current system of charging insurers for each service or treatment provided.

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State Senate conjures new health cost