Those are the figures from Forbes:
In the market for individually-purchased health insurance, more than 4.8 million Americans have received notices that their preexisting plans are soon to be illegal, and will be cancelled. Many more cancellation notices are imminent. But yesterday, the Wall Street Journal obtained information regarding the number of people who have signed up for new private health coverage under Obamacare: “40,000 to 50,000” for the federal exchange, and 49,000 for 12 of the 14 state-based exchanges.
Problem is, that figure for enrollees is a smidge optimistic:
One official told Amy Goldstein and Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post that “the official figure will include people who have paid for a plan and those who simply picked a plan and put it in their shopping cart.” Most private companies aren’t allowed to count as “sales” people who put items in their electronic shopping carts, but haven’t yet paid. But politics triumphs economics.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, according to Lao-tzu. I’m not sure what he would have to say about a thousand-mile journey that begins with a single step forward followed by a 50-step rockslide backwards, but that’s what we have in the journey for getting every American health insurance