Obamacare Hit Its Registration Target of 7 Million. Now What?

Can anyone recall a time when Republicans weren’t raging against the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare)? Conservatives across the country have painted the President's plan to give everyone affordable healthcare as a veritable end of days, signifying the destruction of America as we know it. Despite their increasingly fervent disapproval, Obamacare passed and became law (we guess people like the idea of universal healthcare). Then the rhetoric switched to the imminent failure of the plan, and how nobody would sign up on the governments’ admittedly glitchy website. But despite these setbacks and opposition, Obamacare and its proponents (especially the President) are enjoying a victory right now.

It's official: Obamacare reached its goal of signing up over 7 million people by the end of March — an achievement many critics claimed would never be attained. 7.1 million Americans have now used government-run exchanges to sign up for healthcare plans. For a while, it seemed unlikely that the goal of 7 million would be reached in time; after the disastrous rollout of healthcare.gov in October, which regularly crashed on people attempting to register, the number was dropped to a more conservative 6 million. But eventually the website sorted out its technical difficulties, and registration began to go smoothly. The online servers dealt with strain once again as masses of people rushed to the site to register before Monday’s deadline, bolstering the numbers and indicating that by and large people are beginning to warm up to Obamacare - 7.1 million of them, to be precise.

“This law is doing what it’s supposed to do. It’s working,” President Obama said in an official statement. “The debate over repealing this law is over. The Affordable Care Act is here to stay.”

Not everyone agrees with this sentiment, particularly Republicans who have been loudly and aggressively opposing the Affordable Care Act since its inception. Despite President Obama emphatically insisting that the debate over repealing Obamacare is over and done, opponents are still gunning for the law to be overturned.

“We don’t know of course, exactly what they have signed up for, we don’t know how many have paid,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in an official statement on Capitol Hill. “What we do know is that all across the country our constituents are having an unpleasant interaction with Obamacare. Whether they can sign up for a policy or not they are discovering, of course, higher premiums, a higher deductible.”

House Speaker Republican John Boehner echoed these sentiments, insisting that Obamacare does more harm than good and ends up charging people more for health insurance (failing to address the issue that until the Affordable Care Act, many people didn’t have any health care at all).

“That’s why we must replace this fundamentally flawed law with patient-centered solutions that will actually lower health care costs and help crate jobs," Boehner’s spokesman Michael Steel said in a statement. Despite their aggressive picketing against Obamacare, Republicans have not put forth a plan of their own that addresses the healthcare issues plaguing America.

Obamacare may be a success by some standards, but it’s unlikely that the debate over this will come to an end any time soon. Republicans are determined to undermine the Affordable Care Act, and will continue to rail against it, regardless of the actual success or failure of the program — an attitude the President has been quick to draw attention to.

“I don’t get it,” President Obama said on Capitol Hill. “Why are folks working so hard for people not to have health insurance? Why are they so mad about the idea of people having health insurance?”

It might have had a rocky start (to say the least), but it looks like Obamacare has succeeded in winning over a significant portion of the American public. And putting themselves up against a plan to provide health insurance to people isn’t painting Republicans in a very positive light. It might be time for conservatives to switch tactics — and leave the Obamacare battle behind them.

[Pic via screengrab - healthcare.gov]