Conrad describes 'outline of a compromise' on Senate health bill

The "outline of a compromise" is beginning to emerge in the Senate on health reform legislation, a top Democratic member said Wednesday.

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) described the contours of a compromise health bill he said would probably come to the Senate floor next week.

"I think you can begin to see the outlines of a compromise," Conrad told MinnPost and the Grand Forks Herald.

The compromise, the centrist chairman of the Budget Committee said, would include a public option not tied to Medicare reimbursement rates alongside the nonprofit cooperative model established in the Senate Finance Committee's bill, which Conrad had played a key role in crafting.

"I've always believed the bill that came out of (Senate) Finance had the best chance of getting adopted," he said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has been working to craft the final legislative language on his health bill before bringing it to the floor.

"I think public option will be included as an alternative (in the final bill), but not tied to Medicare levels of reimbursement," Conrad said in preview of that legislation. "And there will be a not-for-profit alternative, and that will be a cooperative model."

The North Dakota Democrat said that while it was possible for the Senate to finish the bill this year, "all the stars will have to align for that to happen."

"It could get done this year, the whole thing, but it seems to me it'll be hard to get wrapped up this year," Conrad explained.