Here's his statement on the floor, 6/16/09. He's staying with the principles, and the proposed legislation is still there on the shelf. It is a contender and it should not be abandoned:

Real health reform means changing the way business is done in the private insurance market. It means, Mr. President, an end to insurance company cherry-picking, where the companies take the healthy people and send the sick people over to government programs more fragile than they are. That's wrong, and this Congress – Democrats and Republicans – will make it illegal. Real reform means everyone is guaranteed coverage by their choice of insurer. Under a new system, insurance companies must be required to cover all comers and they'd be required to price with fairness so you don't get discriminated against because of your gender or your health status or your age. It means that you no longer will be denied coverage or charged more because you were sick years ago or you might be sick five years from now.   

Real health reform guarantees that all Americans can choose their doctor and their health plan. As the President said yesterday, real reform will give every American access to the insurance exchange where they can choose to keep the care they have or pick a better plan that meets their families' needs. That means if you like the care you have – you can keep it. But it also means that if you don't like the care you have – you can reject it. You can reject it and choose a better plan.   Real reform will not only cover the uninsured but it will make the lives of all those who have insurance coverage better. Right now the majority of Americans, Mr. President, who are lucky enough to have employer coverage get no choice. I believe – and the President said it yesterday - those Americans deserve choice too.   

Now, some might say that this undermines the employer-based system. No, it doesn't. Rather, it makes the employer-based system more accountable at the same time that it makes health care more portable.   Real health reform means that if you leave your job or your job leaves you, you don't lose your health care coverage. . . .

Real reform takes an axe to administrative costs. Americans ought to sign up just once for health care. They ought to have their premiums taken from withholdings so they don't have to worry about making payments. They ought to go into larger, efficient groups so they are no longer left on their own on what can often be a cruel individual market. In today's non-system, people are an afterthought to the self-perpetuating bureaucracy of medical billing, reimbursement fights, coverage fights, and outright fraud. . . .