“At the end of the day we will have a public option in our legislation,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday that Reid is close to rounding up the 60 votes needed to pass a plan that includes government-run insurance, adding that the “opt out” version will probably win over.

Conservative Democrats prefer the “opt in” approach, which presumably would keep states from encountering any problems trying to get out of the public plan. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., expressed interest in that idea Sunday.

Democratic strategist Bob Beckel said the “trigger” option, which President Obama is said to favor, seems likely to prevail.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, the only Senate Republican to endorse any version of health care reform to date, has said she won’t accept anything except a “trigger” plan.

If Republicans lock arms in symbolic protest to health care reform in any form, Democrats are predicting a third straight electoral backlash.

“I think that in 2010 what’s helping us is that the Republican Party doesn’t seem to have any platform at all,” Schumer said. “When health care passes it’s going to improve. … I think you’ll see in 2010 we’re going to do pretty well, aided and abetted by no alternative.”

Top Senate Democrats are close to finalizing their health bill and could unveil a measure as soon as early this week that would include stiffer penalties on employers who fail to provide health coverage.

Senate leaders plan to submit the bill to the Congressional Budget Office for a cost estimate as soon as Monday, and make the legislation public as soon as Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.

Details of the legislation could change, but its broad outlines are becoming clear. Employers with more than 50 workers wouldn’t be required to provide health insurance, but they would face fines of up to $750 per employee if even part of their work force received a government subsidy to buy health insurance, this person said. A bill passed by the Senate Finance Committee had a lower fine of up to $400 per employee.

The bill to be brought to the Senate floor would create a new public health-insurance plan, but would give states the choice of opting out of participating in it, a proposal that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada backed last week.

The bill is expected to expand health coverage to tens of millions of Americans by giving low- and middle-income Americans subsidies to offset the cost of insurance, and expanding the Medicaid federal-state insurance program to cover a broader swath of the poor. Most people would be required to buy insurance or pay a fine, though exceptions would be made for those deemed unable to afford it.

Also expected are new rules on insurers to prevent them from denying coverage to people with pre-existing health conditions and from dropping customers’ insurance once they become ill.