It's pretty simple, the GOP would not vote for single payer or public option. Everything else is irrelevant. Look at the votes. Look at the ideology. The GOP NEVER wanted single payer. This is common knowledge. But look who I'm talking to.
The Democratic controlled Congress easily had the votes necessary to pass a single payer or public option. The Obama administration, who let the lobbyists write Obamacare, did not want it. The Origins And Demise Of The Public Option summary I posted clearly outlines both the timeline and the facts regarding the lack of support from the Obama administration for a public plan. I would urge you to read it in detail and get educated.
And just when did this requirement for an ungodly amount of paper work begin? What caused it? It didn't use to be that way. hmmmm
You can't blame ACA for the excess medical paperwork, this was in place before ACA started. ACA did nothing to improve the paperwork problem except for its provisions pushing electronic systems.
We are talking about medicare. I'm going deep before the beginning. Man vs Government good intentions. It takes a thousand rules to prevent man from doing what comes naturally. And two thousand to grease the right palms.
No they did NOT! They could not be sure if they did. If even TWO fucking republicans were for it it would have happened. Please stop with the black is white stupidity.
It is true that they would have had enough votes among all who called themselves democrats, or caucused with the Democrats, but of course there were Democrats who were holdouts and were not going to go along with the public option. There were just enough holdouts to kill it without a couple Republican votes. All manner of schemes were proposed to try and bring these holdouts on board, but in the end it wasn't going to be possible to get the option through without at least a couple Republican votes. The Republicans held firm however. And then, in the Senate, Lieberman who caucused with the Democrats, said he would filibuster the option, and Harry canvassed the Senate and couldn't muster enough votes to break a filibuster if it occurred. I get the sense that both Obama and the Congressional Democrat leadership would have preferred the option remain in, but they weren't ready to kill the bill if they couldn't get it. The record shows they tried but failed. What I take from this is that Democrats are not immune to pressure from lobbyists any more than Republicans. On balance though, it is pretty clear that on this particular issue, opposition was greater among Republicans than among Democrats. [added in edit: It is also fair to say that there were folks in BOTH parties that were responsible for killing the public option. In that sense we can say that killing the public option was a truly bipartisan effort! Arguably this was the most momentous, bipartisan achievement of the 111th Congress!]
The bottom line... if all the Democrats in Congress had voted for the public option then it would have passed. I will ignore the fact that the Obama administration, who hired insurance and healthcare lobbyists to write ACA, wanted nothing to do with the public option.