I said yesterday in a post that I thought the chances were good that private insurance purchases through the state and federal exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) would top 7 million. Now it looks like that rather easy prediction to make has officially come true. President Obama announced yesterday that sales had topped 7 million -- and Charles Gaba (who has kept a running total of Obamacare signups at his website ACASignups.net) puts the total at about 7,080,180 (with some states still to report).
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) had originally estimated that 7 million policies would be sold by March 31st, but after the slow start in October and November they revised their estimate down to 6 million. It turns out that revision wasn't necessary. Consumers flooded the market in March, buying nearly 3.8 million policies in that month alone. Now as the numbers trickle in from the state exchanges, and those who had difficulty with access getting a couple of weeks extension, the question is no longer whether Obamacare will reach its goal but by how much will they surpass that goal.
The Republicans are still saying they want to repeal Obamacare, and that they program will fail -- but the new numbers make those statements sound rather hollow. Obamacare has given more than 20 million Americans health insurance that they couldn't have gotten otherwise, and those numbers will continue to grow. In fact, the only thing keeping most Americans from being able to have quality health insurance is the Republican refusal to expand Medicaid in 25 states (where millions of the poor are still denied health insurance coverage).
Obamacare is not perfect, and I hope we can improve it soon (or go all the way to a single-payer system covering everyone). But it has been a success in getting coverage for millions of Americans, and it will not be repealed. But don't expect any Republican to admit that. They didn't think the huge number of Americans without access to health care was a problem to begin with.
