Obamacare was sold to a skeptical public based on three promises: It would bend the cost curve downward, provide access to care for most of the uninsured, and improve quality of the care we all receive. As many of us predicted, and every honest observer now admits, it has failed to deliver on any of these promises.

The “Affordable Care Act” has exacerbated health care inflation, the number of uninsured Americans remains essentially unchanged from the 30 million cited by former President Obama in his September 9, 2009 address to a joint session of Congress, and the life expectancy of the average American has declined since the law was enacted.

So, how can Obamacare’s remaining advocates still defend it? With increasing desperation. This week, the only “success” they have been able to cite is that it hasn’t completely collapsed. The following headline from the New Yorker was typical: “Obamacare Is Officially Not Collapsing.” Vox chimed in with one of its comical explainers: “Why Obamacare didn’t implode.”

Its gist is this: Because each of Obamacare’s exchanges have at last managed to find at least one insurer willing to sell coverage to the dwindling number of people able to pay their exorbitant premiums. These exchanges, you will recall, were supposed to be models of competition that would drive prices down.

Instead, Obamacare’s perverse incentives have converted the exchanges into a series of regional monopolies where captive customers are required by law to purchase coverage and pay whatever premium the sole insurer deems appropriate.

This is how Obamacare’s shameless pimps are now defining “success.”