I recall even Ted Kennedy somewhat later in life commenting that not reaching a compromise with Nixon's health-care proposals in the '70s, flawed as they were,

I recall even Ted Kennedy somewhat later in life commenting that not reaching a compromise with Nixon's health-care proposals in the '70s, flawed as they were, was one of his major regrets, because the end result of holding out for proper reform was that here we were decades later, and nothing had gotten passed at all. The Nixon proposal is an interesting one in retrospect. In some ways it's "left" of PPACA, despite at the time being opposed by Democrats, who preferred a real public plan and criticized Nixon's as a sellout to insurance companies. Although it wasn't single-payer, one of Nixon's proposed compromises would've actually included a public plan as an opt-in possibility (but not the default), reminiscent of the "public option" that more liberal Democrats unsuccessfully tried to include in PPACA.