A proper public option receives no more government support than a private company does. If answering to political pressure instead of answering to a board of directors turns out to be an amazing thing for health care efficiency, single-payer could be on its way. I think that's dreaming by people who have never run anything in their life, but I also think that they should be free to try and fail, as long as it's a genuine same-as-a-private-company public option.
When you want something to happen politically, you need to work from a position of strength. If you have had a bunch of failures recently, people will not trust whatever new promises you are making. (And saying the failures were someone else's fault is the worst excuse of all. It's not like all those people you blame the problems on have died.)