Imagine traveling on the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic, the ship that its makers famously bragged was unsinkable. The ship has just hit a massive iceberg, its famed compartment design has failed to contain the breach, and the bow is getting dangerously close to the water. Suddenly, one of the crew rushes up to you and says, “I know exactly what will save us …. Another iceberg!”

This week, that is exactly what advocates of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, prescribed for the ailing, byzantine Obamacare system. As the few remaining Obamacare co-ops collapse, despite billions in federal subsidies, Democrats want to revive a controversial component of their party’s original plan: the public option.