Grassley: Senate health debate will focus on GOP alternatives

The Senate's post-Thanksgiving health debate will center around GOP ideas, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) suggested Wednesday.

Grassley, a key player in the Senate's health reform deliberations this year, said that the debate, which is expected to begin next week, to focus on the Republican alternatives and amendments offered to the bill.

"I think the topics of debate will probably be centered on Republican alternatives," Grassley said in a conference call with Iowa reporters. "And we probably won't have one comprehensive alternative. We'll probably have a lot of different subsection amendments."

Republican leaders have said they would prefer to see the Senate debate last weeks, though Democrats in the chamber have said they hope to finish the bill by Christmas.

Grassley said the GOP amendments would likely involve medical malpractice reform, opening up pooling opportunities for small businesses, and eliminating cuts in Medicare contained in the bill.

But there will still be a number of Democratic issues to be resolved in the coming month's debate. Not least of those issues is whether the Senate bill can pass with a public (or "government-run") option. Several centrist senators, most notably Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), have said they would oppose the final bill if it includes the public plan as currently proposed.