Three ways you can tell HealthCare.Gov is working. "Republicans have mostly stopped attacking the website. Two sets of House Republican talking points shared with National Journal bare this out. Tuesday's email, sent from the office of GOP Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, barely touches on the website, while Thursday's doesn't mention the site at all." Alex Seitz-Wald in the National Journal.
It's hard to sign up for Obamacare. It's much worse to be uninsured. "The people shopping on HealthCare.gov are incredibly, unwaveringly persistent in their attempts to purchase coverage. This is something that has become clear to me in my most recent interviews, talking to people who have now spent two months trying to buy insurance coverage. These are the people who have made upwards of 100 attempts at buying insurance coverage. They're the ones trying the Web site at different times of day and in different Internet browsers. Some incorporate it into their daily routines; logging on to HealthCare.gov has become the first thing they do when they wake up, the last thing they do before falling asleep." Sarah Kliff in The Washington Post.
The GOP says Obamacare will cancel 80-100 million insurance plans. Nope. "[Christopher] Conover says "at least" 129 million people will lose their coverage by the end of 2014. How does Conover reach such a startling estimate? By redefining what it means to lose your coverage. What Conover's talking about here isn't cancellation notices or pink slips, as Rogers says. It's any change to a plan at all...As for Conover's definition of losing your health insurance, it's telling that so many of the people losing their health insurance don't think they've lost their health insurance. Many of them think their health insurance has improved! And small changes to benefits and premiums are common in employer-provided health-care plans." Ezra Klein in The Washington Post.
Republicans are shifting their message on Obamacare. "In a significant development, GOP candidates have embraced a concept that was unthinkable a year ago: fixing President Obama's landmark law. Others, meanwhile, have offered replacement healthcare plans. Senate Republican hopefuls in the House, including Reps. Jack Kingston (Ga.), Bill Cassidy (La.), Paul Broun (Ga.), Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.) and Tom Cotton (Ark.), have proposed alternatives or voted to repair the law." Alexandra Jaffe in The Hill