Democrats are addicted to Obamacare. It has performed poorly, alienated far more people than it has aided, and been a political disaster. Yet Democrats can’t shake it. In 2010, it was the issue that delivered the House to Republicans. In 2014, it gave them the Senate. In 2016, it was one of the keys to Donald Trump’s capture of the White House.

After all this, a rational party would want to scrap Obamacare or modify it significantly. President Obama has tinkered but nothing more. Democrats act as if it is as essential to national wellbeing as Medicare and Social Security. It’s been “a big success,” House minority leader Nancy Pelosi declared last week, and there were no reports of eye rolling among her colleagues. “We [had] three goals. One was to lower cost, [an]other to improve benefits, and the third, to increase access.” That sounds great, but it’s only true for those who had no health insurance and now get it free (at taxpayers’ expense). The rest of us pay more and our access to specific policies and doctors is limited.