But he got a 'half way to universal healthcare measure' through congress
No, he didn't. Since ACA, uninsured rates have dropped ~25%.
where a universal healthcare measure would not get through
There's a lot to unpack in this bit of wisdom. First of all, there were other alternatives. Second, they weren't considered. It had been over a decade since a serious universal coverage proposal was discussed, and it was just discarded without discussion.
Putting that aside, a majority of Americans support a single-payer system. The fact that Congress can't "get through" policies with "wide support" is a clear sign that Congress is corrupt and insulated from accountability. While that's a political reality to contend with, it's also a self-reinforcing psychological barrier.
Keep in mind that there are policies which have broad popular support and political support and still "can't get through", such as campaign finance reform. There is near unanimous support, and yet... Amusingly, unfucking campaign finance would almost certainly go a long way toward opening doors for other sweeping changes that have broad support.
With luck the next administration will get though the 'single payer' option
I sincerely doubt this. ACA took all the political capital for healthcare reform for the next decade or two.
I'll take an pragmatic incrementer over someone calling for a revolution that will never happen.
You have to define "revolution" here. I know Sanders has been using the term, so it's kind of colored by recent events, but there is nothing revolutionary about instituting policies which are mainstream and successful in huge swaths of the world with a variety of economic, social and political conditions.