HEALTH.

An Ongoing Discussion/Moment of Clarity.

WORDS. 

"An article in Tuesday’s Los Angeles Times cites Connecticut, Kentucky, Minnesota, and Washington as on track to exceed their enrollment targets. Here in New York, too, there are positive signs. Last week, officials reported that close to fifty thousand people had signed up for health insurance through the state’s new Web site, NY State of Health, with about half of them taking out private plans and half enrolling in Medicaid. “I would say we are seeing great interest in New York, and we are very pleased with our enrollment numbers,” Danielle Holahan, the deputy director for NY State of Health, said.

What these states have in common are state-run Web sites that are working pretty well; they are also all controlled by Democrats who are pushing the new reform. This progress points to something that has been absent in much of the reporting about the troubled rollout of healthcare.gov and the cancellation of individual policies: in places where Americans know about the comprehensive and heavily subsidized health coverage available under the Affordable Care Act and can easily access it, they are doing so in substantial numbers.

...Where private insurance plans are affordable and readily available, they are sure to be popular. And that’s only part of the story. The success some states are having enrolling people in Medicaid is another development that deserves more attention. In Oregon, for example—which is one of twenty-five states registering adults who weren’t previously qualified for the jointly funded federal-state program—more than seventy thousand people have already been signed up. It’s probably fair to assume that prior to last month many of these folks didn’t have any coverage.

...Before the passage of the Affordable Care Act, America’s health-care system, particularly the individual-insurance part of it, was not functioning well. At this early juncture, neither is its replacement. But in those parts of the country where Obamacare is up and running, there are some encouraging signs"

THE NEW YORKER: Americans Like Obamacare Where They Can Get It