No one party can take on the democratically popular Patriot Act. In your mind, how was this going to go down? Obama gives up health care to trade for Patriot Act? American voters punish Democrats for the loss of patriotism and healthcare?
The real lesson is that obama should have expanded executive power even more and done anything he could (including norm breaking) to executive order away as much of the patriot act and guantanamo as the courts would give him.
All you really need to look at is whether the insurance companies liked obamacare: they loved it. Because it was a great deal for them and at the expense of everyone else.
It did nothing to lower costs. It did raise the age limit to stay on your parent's plan, disallowed pre-existing conditions exclusions, and made contraception more accessible though. Those could have been passed separately without trying (and failing) to overhaul the entire industry, which ultimately contributed to the ridiculous pricing we see today.
Which were easily waived during your tax return process by showing you were below X income line.
I was making $27K a year at my previous job and couldn't afford health insurance. All I had to do was check off that I couldn't afford it in turbo tax which then verified I was below the cutoff line and the fees were waived.