This would also be an uphill climb. But perhaps the way to attack the Health Insurance/Pharma hold on Congress is to go after them differently.
We shouldn't focus on single payer/robust public option exclusively. We need to start urging our more progressive representatives to also start insurance regulation, to reform them that way.
Think of it this way. They are busy trying to make sure there is no public option that provides them with real competition. This is their focus. There are many reasons that make a public option clearly needed - closed markets, administrative costs, refusal to acknowledge benefits, denial for pre existing conditions, sky rocketing premiums.
So while the battle for a public option continues we also work to regulate those issues. We work to make it illegal to deny coverage for preexisting conditions. We widen regions, demanding more competition between companies. We make certain things part of all insurance plans with no strings - no approval for emergency rooms and ambulances, one free physical a year, no referral approval. We initiate extreme penalties for denial of care for covered conditions. We recognize the need for quick response for health care coverage approvals and that such decisions be made by health care experts (not underwriters). We require prompt payments of claims for doctors with interest being charged for anything over a month. We put in place premium increase caps, that can be appealed but only upon opening the books. We start talking regulations for every abuse of the insurance system in America.
IOW, we start fighting to demand that Insurance companies operate as providing a public service that remains profitable by streamlining their process and eliminating the waste. And in the process we can hopefully change the discussion about what doesn't currently work for Insurance company customers (both personal and those whose insurance is primarily employer funded). We all know that part of the argument against single payer has been people are happy with their insurance, this would turn that on its ear.
Could this work? Could we make it a two front war and change the frame in the process?