There were a whole bunch of progressives who were against the ACA

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254. Yes, there was a lot of support for a public option.

Your own take on the history of the public option is a little different from mine.

The house and senate worked separately on different approaches to health care reform. The house debated several different approaches and approved of legislation that included a public option (which was the approach favored by the president). The senate advanced a bill out of the Finance Committee -- the "Baucus Bill" -- which had been under consideration in the senate finance committee as early as 2007. The committee published an early draft of the bill in November 2008, just days after Barack Obama's election. By that time, the senate had been holding hearings on the bill for more than a year. This was the bill that eventaully became law.

I'm not going to recount the entire series of procedural steps that eventually led to passage of the senate bill. Suffice it to say that up until right near the end, the house continued to fight for its legislation and the senate continued to push for its bill to be adopted. With time running out, house leader Nancy Pelosi conceded and brought the senate replacement bill to the house floor for a final house vote.

The house approved of the senate changes and when asked by the press about the vote, Pelosi said with resignation and I'm sure no small amount of frustration that she hadn't read the bill. Her entire energy had been focused for more than a year on passing the house bill. She hadn't read the senate bill.

As it was, the health care reform law passed without a single vote to spare -- including all 58 Democrats and both independents (Lieberman and Sanders). Robert Byrd had to be wheeled onto the senate floor in his wheelchair to cast his late-night vote for cloture to move the bill for a full vote.

The Democrats had a 60-vote majority in the senate for only a short window of time -- between the time when Sen. Al Franken was finally seated and the time when Scott Brown won the special election to replace Ed Kennedy.

President Obama favored the house public option but made the decision for a number of very good reasons to keep largely out of the legislative process.

It's easy to call the health care law a disappointment, but it could have just as easily fell short by one or two votes and died -- just as the DREAM Act did.

We would have completely blown any opportunity to make any positive change. Insurance companies would be free to continue dropping policy holders when they get sick, denying coverage to the very people who needed it the most, etc. There's no telling when, if ever, there would be another opportunity. Certainly not now and not in the near future either.

It's easy to call it a failure when you're not the one counting votes in the senate and weighing chances for winning or losing while the window for action is closing.

The only way to improve the law is to elect progressive Democrats.