I have read this elsewhere, and jem has harped on this. I think it is probably mostly true. Probably the real truth is that Obama and the Democrats were intent on getting something passed and willing to make big compromises in order to do that, thinking once they got their foot in the door with some type of comprehensive plan they could fine tune it later. But I think it is also probably true that Obama and many, if not a majority, of House Democrats would have preferred single payer, or at least the public option as originally proposed, had they thought for one moment they could get it through both Houses.
Getting something through both houses became the priority, and in the Senate they had to get past Baucas, a democrat with close ties to the insurance industry. Baucus was situated to single handedly defeat anything not palatable to the Health insurance industry, hence neither single payer nor the public option had a chance of passing both Houses. Even though the Democrats had the votes needed on the Senate floor, Baucas, under Senate rules at the time, as chair of the Senate Finance Committee, had the power to kill anything he didn't like. Hence no public option and certainly consideration of single payer was out of the question. Now, Baucas, after he helped make a mess of things, seems to have had a change in Heart.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news...-single-payer-health-care-20170908-story.html
