There is no doubt, according to U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, that Pres. Barack Obama will have a health care reform bill on his desk by Christmas — and that the bill will include a public option.

“Reports of the public option’s death are greatly exaggerated,” Harkin said Thursday morning, noting once again that four out of the five reform proposals passed by Congressional committees have included a public option, and that by his assessment, a majority of Americans and physicians support it.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin (Lauren Victoria Burke/WDCPIX.COM)

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin (Lauren Victoria Burke/WDCPIX.COM)

“We will have a bill on the President’s desk before Christmas — a health reform bill. It will have a lot of good stuff in it. It will have a lot of good prevention and wellness programs in there that I have been fighting for, and it will have a public option,” Harkin said. “Exactly how that public option will look … well, that remains to be seen. But it will have a public option.”

Asked if he would support a reform bill that did not have a public option, Harkin rejected the premise of the question.

“The bill that we take to the President will have a public option,” he reiterated. “So, the question on ‘What if it doesn’t?’ isn’t even a question. It will have one.”

Harkin also rejects the notion that health care reform negotiations have failed to include the GOP.

“You have to define [it],” Harkin said. “What does bipartisan mean? How many Republicans does it take to be bipartisan, and what process do you go through? I mean, if the party takes a hard-line position… what do you have to do?

“Like on our health bill; We put our bill out there before the committee. It was open for any amendments. The Republicans offered, I think, close to 220-some amendments, and we adopted 161 Republican amendments. So I thought it was a very fair and a very open process. No one was denied the opportunity to offer an amendment, debate it and get a vote on it. But at the end of that — even after adopting 161 amendments — every single Republican voted against it. So, I mean, what do you have to do?”

In addition, once the measure is passed and signed by the President, Harkin is convinced that the wide margin of support that he says already exists for the bill will further expand, just as public sentiment regarding Medicare has.

“Once we get closer to a final passage and once the outlines of this bill become clearer and more sharply in focus, I think the support will increase quite rapidly. Once Iowans find out that the big winners in our (HELP Committee) bill, and in the final bill, the biggest winners are the small business owners and the self-employed, like farmers and others. That will become very clear once this bill is signed into law and we move ahead.”