Better in their words…

Is there panic in the air?
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Succumbing to the growing panic over his health law, the president on Thursday moved to throw his party a political lifeline. As rescue apparatuses go, it is likely to do more harm than good.

Mr. Obama took to the podium in the White House briefing room to explain that yes, some Americans may indeed now keep the health-care plans they like. Maybe. If insurers can undo three years of work in a few weeks. If state regulators can move at similar lightning speed. So long as the old plans come with new warning labels. And with the understanding that those Americans lucky enough to receive a renewal option can only keep the plans they “like” for a further year. Those giant caveats aside, the president wishes you good fortune.

This small turnabout was nonetheless a humiliating concession for Mr. Obama, whose press secretary, Jay Carney, only a few days ago was ripping the idea of allowing insurers to continue selling “substandard” plans. His hand was forced by a growing mob of congressional Democrats who are getting slammed over cancellations, and who threatened revolt if the administration didn’t act.

The primary purpose of the White House “fix” was to get out ahead of the planned Friday vote on Michigan Republican Fred Upton’s “Keep Your Health Plan Act.” The stage was set for dozens of Democrats to join with the GOP for passage—potentially creating a veto-proof majority, and putting enormous pressure on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to follow suit.

The White House couldn’t risk such a bipartisan rebuke. Moreover, the Upton bill—while it lacks those GOP joy words of “delay” or “repeal”—poses a threat, since it would allow insurers to continue providing non-ObamaCare policies to any American who wants one. Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu’s version of the bill would in fact (unconstitutionally) order insurers to offer the plans in perpetuity. Both bills undermine the law’s central goal of forcing healthy people into costly ObamaCare exchange plans that subsidize the sick.

The president’s “fix” is designed to limit such grandfathering, but that’s why it is of dubious political help to Democrats. Within minutes of Mr. Obama’s announcement, several Democratic senators, including North Carolina’s Kay Hagan —whose poll numbers have plummeted in advance of her 2014 re-election bid—announced that they remain in favor of Landrieu-style legislation.

And the White House “fix” doesn’t save Democrats from having to take a vote on the Upton bill. A yes vote is a strike at the president and an admission that the law Democrats passed is failing. A no vote is tailor-made for political attack ads and requires a nuanced explanation of why the president’s “fix” is better than Upton’s. Which it isn’t. Politicians don’t do nuance very well. This explains why the Democratic leadership on Thursday promised to soon introduce its own legislation that would “reinforce” the White House change (and, it hopes, provide its members better cover).

The White House “fix” was likely also groundwork to shift the blame for canceled policies to insurers and state regulators, trusting the public won’t notice the difference between “can” and “may.” It is highly unlikely that most insurers “can” rip up their business plans (rates, policies, eligibility, actuarial tables), get state regulator approval, reprogram their computers, send out notices and new explanations, give consumers time to think, and then re-sign people up in the one month that remains before the Dec. 15 deadline. But as Mr. Obama has now said they “may,” and you can bet he’ll blame the failure for this to happen on anyone but his administration.

The question is whether blame-shifting is even possible. The Obama announcement was designed to quell the cancellation furor, to push it beyond next year’s midterms. But what’s becoming clear to horrified Washington Democrats is just how successfully they re-engineered health care. ObamaCare’s pieces are vastly complex, intricately linked, and built upon each other. For Democrats who want political cover, there are no “fixes” around the edges.

The White House’s Thursday play will not end cancellation notices. Fixing Healthcare.gov simply gives more Americans access to the budget-busting premiums and limited networks within the exchange. Grandfathering, to the extent it happens, only pushes those premiums higher. So does a delay in the individual mandate. Further exemptions, say to taxes, strip money Democrats are banking on. Extending enrollment periods does nothing but provide Americans more time to contemplate their miserable choices.

Grandfathering current and canceled plans only adds to the confusion. And the White House’s decision to do this administratively reopens questions over the legality (and illegality) of the White House’s many ObamaCare actions. This doesn’t restore credibility; it further undermines it.

A Democratic aide this week told The Hill that the party was concerned about “being dragged into this nonstop cycle” of bad news. It is way too late for that, especially if the GOP continues to stay out of the way and let this be about Democratic liabilities and divisions. The only real “fix” for this law—and for Democratic political pain—is to scrap it.

Write to kim@wsj.com

Kim Strassel: The President’s ObamaCare Backpedal – WSJ.com.