The big thing was the personal mandate, which was straight out of the original right wing think tank versions of the 1990s...

It's not ideal, not ideal at all, but given the screwed up nature of US politics and the weird nature of 'blue dog' democrats, I strongly doubt that Obama could have delivered Single Payer even with his super majority - it must be remembered that even with 60 in the Senate that still included some DINOs and in the end not one Republican broke ranks.