Obamacare Reaches Another Milestone

Criticizing the botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act just got even harder. On Thursday, President Obama announced that eight million people have bought health care through Obamacare’s insurance exchanges, up from seven million earlier this month. That’s the second piece of good news for the law this week, as the Congressional Budget Office released a report Monday estimating that Obamacare will cost around $104 billion less over the next ten years than was originally predicted.

"This thing is working," Obama said at a press conference: “[Republicans] said no one would sign up. They were wrong about that. They are wrong to try to repeal a law that is working."

It’s crucial to note that this eight million figure does not represent everyone who’s enrolled in Obamacare, only those who have signed up through the federal insurance exchanges (that is, HealthCare.gov). Other means of obtaining health coverage through the law include signing up through any of the state-run exchanges, enrolling in the Medicaid expansion, and for those under the age of 26, remaining on your parent’s health care plan. Taking into account all of those enrollees, anywhere between 14.4 and 23.5 million people have signed up for health care through the Affordable Care Act.

Unsurprisingly, Republicans who were convinced that the botched rollout of the website would doom the law still aren’t convinced of anything. After Obama said at his press conference that it’s “well past time to move on” from cries to repeal the law, the National Republican Congressional Committee did the Twitter equivalent of crossing your arms and shaking your head with a pouty expression.

It is, if nothing else, and honest tweet. The GOP does seem to be literally incapable of moving on from Obamacare.