By Ted Barrett, Morgan Rimmer, CNN

(CNN) — Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Monday would not commit to a vote on a GOP health care proposal this week with key Affordable Care Act subsidies soon to expire.

Democrats are set to get a Senate vote later this week on their proposal to extend the enhanced ACA subsidies for three years without any changes. The plan – lacking enough Republican support to pass – is expected to fail but Republicans agreed to hold the vote after Democrats made it a demand to reopen the government during the record-breaking shutdown.

Republicans have long been divided over how to replace the Affordable Care Act and are weighing multiple proposals as the clock ticks down on the expiring tax credits. While some are open to letting them sunset, others are concerned that higher prices could hurt Republicans in the midterms, and GOP leadership wants to present a united front on the issue.

As Republicans have struggled to coalesce around an alternative bill, they argue they have a lot of ideas to make changes to health care and are willing to talk with Democrats about them once Democrats cast what the GOP sees as a messaging, designed-to-fail vote, and say they won’t be driven by their timetable.

“We’re going to have a conversation tomorrow with our members and kind of decide the path forward. We could – we have some good options. But this, to me, is on the Democrats’ part, is a messaging exercise, political messaging exercise. I don’t think they’re serious about wanting to do a deal yet,” Thune said, though he acknowledged that Republicans “have people in different camps” on how to deal with the expiring tax credits.

According to a senior GOP aide, Republicans are unlikely to have a vote on any alternative to the Democrat plan this week. The vote on the Democratic bill is likely to take place Thursday, but has not yet been officially scheduled.

Thune later added, “[Sens.] Crapo and Cassidy put a proposal out there, but I think the idea – which doesn’t include any extension of the subsidies — but I do think that if the Democrats were serious and really wanted to work in a constructive way with Republicans, there’s perhaps a path forward there, but that’s not this.”

He noted that he believes that there are Democrats who are ready to negotiate with Republicans, but said, “I think they are being probably marginalized a bit by their leadership, and in order to get this, I think, political messaging vote done first, and then we’ll see what happens.”

On Monday, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio unveiled a bill to that would extend subsidies for two years while making changes to the program Republicans have been demanding related to income caps and mandated premiums. While the Senate GOP strategy over the expiring tax credits remains in flux, that bill is also not expected to get a vote this week.

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CNN’s Manu Raju contributed to this report.