Somebody: Let's not kid ourselves. If the bill doesn't muster the votes in Congress, the administration will shift further to the right as Clinton did after his defeat, and demoralized Democratic voters will tilt the country further rightwards by ushering in a Republican dominated legislature.
If the left in this country really cared about this issue, they could have organized major protests in Washington over health care. It hasn't happened, in part because there just isn't a significant groundswell for single-payer in this country beyond the letters to the editor section of your local newspaper.
At some point, perception can become a political force in it's own right. For better or worse, the health care bill is seen as being liberal or even socialist. Getting Americans to see that "socialism" isn't all that frightening, could be a good thing.