Did Watergate Prevent National Healthcare?

Consider this quote from Evan Thomas:

"On May 13, the president made a national radio address proposing comprehensive national health insurance. His proposal, with its federal mandates, was not significantly different from the one that Barack Obama finally pushed through Congress nearly four decades later. 9 But in May 1974, such a massive piece of social welfare legislation had no chance of passage. Nixon had been surprisingly effective on Capitol Hill, given that the Democrats controlled both chambers, but the game was over."