My must read of the day is "ObamaCare comeback?" in the Hill:
"I don’t get it," Obama said. "Why are folks working so hard for people not to have health insurance? Why are they so mad about folks having health insurance?"
"There are still no death panels. Armageddon has not arrived. Instead this law is helping millions of Americans," he said.
Republicans warned that Obama would be eating his words in November.
"President Barack Obama is taking a premature victory lap for his signature healthcare law," Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said.
"If the president feels so good about the so-called success of his healthcare law, then we encourage him to campaign with Mary Landrieu, Mark Pryor and all the other Senate Democrats who unanimously voted for Obamacare," Priebus added, referring to Democratic senators in Louisiana and Arkansas in difficult reelection races this year.
Reince Priebus has been guilty of taking plenty "premature victory laps," but he's right to say that's what the president is doing.
All they have is a general number. It's a better number than many people expected, even by the administration’s method of counting "selected" plans, but it doesn't reveal much in the way of enrollment success or failure. Who has enrolled will show that more than anything. The administration needs a 40 percent enrollment rate of 18-34 year olds to balance the risk pool and avoid rising premiums.
Until they have that 40 percent in every state (or very close to it), I'm not impressed. If I were a part of this administration I'd want to err on the side of being cautiously optimistic, rather than outright celebratory.
Armageddon may not have arrived at this exact moment, but there's a lot to be seen before we can close the chapter on the first open enrollment. The biggest revelation will come when insurance companies set their premiums for 2015.