We've eliminated the possibility of Single Payer in the US, and the reason for this is stupid: Nobody on the left can criticize the ACA anymore. Due to our ridiculously partisan shitshow that we've got going on, any criticism by Democratic Party politicians of the ACA will bring a shunning from the party leaders. The only thing they are allowed to do anymore is gloss over the ACA's failings with flowery language, and say they want to "improve" it.

But you can't "improve" the ACA into single payer. You can only get single payer by starting over from scratch.

The pathetic thing is that a public option, the original plan, could quite easily be improved into single payer. And despite the largest Democratic majorities in both the house and senate for several decades, with a sparkly new progressive Democratic president that campaigned primarly on health care reform, they couldn't pass it. It seems the Democratic party has something to learn from the Republican party on how to get shit done.