Republican senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee has thrown in the towel on the quixotic idea of reforming Obamacare together with the Democrats.

According to Alexander, whose statement was quoted in the Washington Times and in Axios (emphasis added):

"Given Democrats' attitude, I know of nothing that Republicans and Democrats can agree on to stabilize the individual health market," he wrote in a letter obtained by The Washington Times.  "The last seven months show that Democrats are not willing to even make modest temporary changes with which they agree.  So now efforts to help Americans paying skyrocketing premiums will turn to the Trump administration and the states.  And our committee's efforts will turn to other pressing health care issues," such as the opioid epidemic.

Hear that?  Alexander can't make even tiny changes that Democrats agree on to make Obamacare just a little less horrible for consumers.  One of the sticking points, according to the news, is that Democrats are hell-bent on insisting on federal funds for abortion in any deal they make.  Free abortion with the cash going to Planned Parenthood is that important to Democrats – they will hold the rest of Obamacare and its battered consumers hostage to it.  Any wonder why people are just opting to go uninsured?  This article claims that the people dropping out, but they are only the working poor who qualify for subsidies – and it's a claim that is total baloney.  The working poor are being struck hardest by Obamacare fines, as this study shows.  Of course they are dropping out.

What we have here is an end to any effort to reform Obamacare with the ruling party, apparently because Democrats are convinced that a blue wave is upon us and voters are content with Obamacare and all its attendant horrors – from privacy violations to the useless medical services one will never use to the one-size-fits-all plans (dental care for other people's kids, but none for you, anyone?) to centrally planned diktats with massive costs.  Six months, and the pressure will be off, so no need to reform Obamacare to get votes.

So let's face it: Obamacare is unreformable.  What this suggests is that the only option now to end the pain is to scrap it and start over.  The path is clear.  There will be no end to the nightmare of the law because Democrats like it as it is, and all the campaign talk of reform from some is bogus.  They won't even reform it on matters they claim they agree on.

Let's hope this serves as a message to Republicans (who know what the voters want) to quit futzing around with soft solutions to Obamacare and just get rid of the hellish law before Democrats can come back to institutionalize it some more, ignoring voters.  Getting rid of Obamacare is why voters voted in the Republicans and might just be what keeps their party in control anyway.

Democrats aren't interested in saving Obamacare as it spirals downward with everyone except Obama profiteers benefiting.  They have a death wish, and it's showing.

Image Credit: Michael Day via Flickr, Creative Commons SA 2.0.