When the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was passed, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicted that about 7 million private insurance policies would be purchased by the end of March of this year. But after the program got off to a weak start last October (due to computer problems), the CBO revised their estimate down to 6 million -- and the Republicans predicted that the 6 million figure would not even be reached.
Both the Republicans and the CBO were wrong -- by a significant amount. It now looks like the figure for the end of March was about 7.21 million purchases. And since the program deadline was extended for those who had trouble getting access to the exchanges, another 570,000 policies have been purchased. That brings the current total to about 7.78 million -- and it is not inconceivable that the final total will reach 8 million.
And that doesn't even count the millions who are now on their parents' policies or the millions who have qualified for Medicaid. Obamacare didn't solve all the problems facing of our health care system, but any honest person will have to admit it has been a huge success.
