In Obama's recent speech, he equated the movement to extend Medicare to all Americans with the Canadian single-payer.
There are those on the left who believe that the only way to fix the system is through a single-payer system like Canada’s where we would severely restrict the private insurance market and have the government provide coverage for everyone." ...such a plan "would represent a radical shift that would disrupt the health care most people currently have.
He also reminded his "progressive friends" what apparently the real driving force behind health reform has been about all these years:
"To my progressive friends, I would remind you that for decades the driving force behind reform has been to end insurance company abuses and make coverage affordable to those without it,"
Forgive me, but I'm pretty sure the driving force for the Democratic base has been a universal health care system, and among the most ardent supporters of health care reform on the Left, a government administered universal health reform system.