HCAN's Kirsch: Public Option Compromise Not Good Enough

Richard Kirsch, leader of the reform campaign Health Care for America Now says there are some nice things about the emerging public option compromise in the Senate...but it's still not a public option.

"Our take is pretty simple," Kirsch told me in an interview. "We're glad to see there's a good public option for people 55 and over, and we're going to work hard to extend that."

Kirsch is refering to the Medicare buy-in, which would allow people 55-64 to pay for the same insurance seniors receive from the government. In essence, that amounts to a public option.

He went on, "We don't view non-profit insurers as a substitute for a public option. We're not going to compromise on our principles"

"Our position has always been that we want a national, robust public option," Kirsch said. "The closest thing we've seen to that is the House and that's our position today.