Wow. This is in The Huffington Post this morning:
The Obama administration said Friday that more than 3 million people have now signed up for private plans through the federal and state health insurance exchanges, including more than 800,000 in January.
3,000,000. And January isn’t over yet. And this number doesn’t include those who have been newly qualified for Medicaid under Obamacare (something in the range of 6,000,000 people).
That’s 9,000,000 insured people in total to date. (The 3,000,000 number represents just the Marketplace exchange purchases by individuals.)
This is the “disaster” Tea Party conservatives warned us about. 3,000,000 newly insured Americans through the Marketplace exchanges (with many, many more to follow–probably upwards of 5,000,000 Marketplace exchange purchases by the end of March alone).
And the success of these exchanges means that Obamacare is irreversible. From this point forward, we will see uneven but steady growth in public support. No working American will ever again be refused insurance because of a preexisting condition, nor will she or he be forced out of having insurance for getting a chronic illness or changing jobs. And no working American needs to ever again go bankrupt because of unexpected medical bills, nor forego treatment because she or he lacks insurance. Obamacare plugs all these holes in the social safety net, and there is no going back. These reasonable reforms are the enduring signals in the political noise.
Meep meep to the reactionaries who said no to Obamacare and the healthcare exchange Marketplace.
Prometheus Unbound 