I think the core ideas of the ACA with the public option was originally Gingrich, in response to Hillary Clinton’s much more aggressive proposal for single payer, right? And then before the federal ACA, “Romneycare” was implemented in Massachusetts (without a public option, but with preexisting condition protection and not allowing separate high risk pools) by Republican Governor Mitt Romney. I think the discourse ended up polarized because Obama presented it that it seemed really partisan but the person that killed the public option in a Herculean commitment to insurance company profiteering was none other than liberal centrist Senator Joe Lieberman. This is not a partisan issue. There are obviously going to be ideological pockets in the extremes but outside of that, for the most part, the only people that are stepping up to defend the insurance companies are in their goddamned pockets.