Fair enough.
The original bill passed by the House did include that public option, though. Which was of course intended to eventually facilitate the transition away from private insurers. Which is the point I was trying to get across when I said "supposed to be". Incorrect of me to express it so.
My position remains that the original intent was (and is) single payer. We'd have a public option now if not for Lieberman. Well, we'd have had a public option for a little while, anyways, lol.