> There was a time when the ACA was about a single payer healthcare system.

I don't think there was ever a time when the ACA was about single payer.

I think you're confusing it with a separate alternative bill progressives championed during the healthcare reform period that we called the Medicare for All Act (H.R.676 - United States National Health Insurance Act (or the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act.

We pushed hard for our vision of a national health care system and just about all progressives in Congress agreed with nearly 100 co-sponsors, but ultimately the centrist democrats and their new centrist President chose a path of "compromise" with conservatives who did not have any interest in compromise.

It makes me sad. If conservatives were going to wage a scorched earth red scare propaganda war against any health care reform, why not ACTUALLY achieve a national health care system and give their red scare complaints merit?

Maybe if that single payer system weren't designed (at every step of the way) to enable competition by private industry.

? The Medicare for All bill from 2008 and its current iteration in 2015, the primary and most prominent push for national healthcare, explicitly bans all private institutions from participating unless they are non-profits. Only public and non-profits are allowed to participate.