Obamacare Sign-Ups Still growing Fast

Right-wingers were jubilant when the Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare) became operational, and the health care exchange website started to sign people up for private health care insurance. That's because the we site had serious glitches, and in the first couple of months very few people signed up. Republicans claimed it showed the public didn't want Obamacare.

Well, now the glitches have been fixed and a little more time has passed -- and it looks like they right-wing celebration was premature. Sign-ups for private insurance ballooned in December, finishing the month with 2.2 million people having bought insurance. And the growth hasn't slowed. By the middle of January another 800,000 people had bought private insurance, bringing the total now to slightly over 3 million.

Sign-ups are still slightly below the government projections, but not by much. They had projected 3.3 million by the end of December. Only two weeks past that date, there are now 3 million. That's close, and it continues to grow. The government projection of about 7 million in the first year could well be achieved. It seems that people are finally beginning to realize that the Obamacare reforms, while not perfect, do provide them with cheaper and better health insurance.

With over 3 million now having purchased better and cheaper private insurance (many with help from government subsidies), and millions more being added to the Medicaid rolls, it is going to be even harder for Republicans to make a case for repealing Obamacare and going back to the old system. Doing so would take health insurance away from millions of people (and could be disastrous in the coming election).

It seems the Republicans worst nightmare is becoming a reality -- that Obamacare is a success.