"At least 9.5 million previously uninsured people have gained health care coverage" -- LA Times

Midnight tonight is the deadline for this enrollment period in the Affordable Care Act -- except that, if you had already started the process, you have another two weeks to complete it.    So these are not the final statistics.   But they're good enough to bring out the champagne.

Thanks to the Los Angeles Times for the data and backup citations (omitted here):Precise figures on national health coverage will not be available for months. But available data indicate:

-  At least 6 million people have signed up for health coverage on the new marketplaces, about one-third of whom were previously uninsured. .

-  At least 4.5 million previously uninsured adults have signed up for state Medicaid programs, according to Rand's unpublished survey data, which were shared with The Times. .

-  An additional 3 million young adults have gained coverage in recent years through a provision of the law that enables dependent children to remain on their parents' health plans until they turn 26 . . . .  

-  About 9 million people have bought health plans directly from insurers, instead of using the marketplaces. . .  The vast majority of these people were previously insured.

 - Fewer than a million people who had health plans in 2013 are now uninsured because their plans were canceled for not meeting new standards set by the law, the Rand survey indicates.   

Republican critics of the law have suggested that the cancellations last fall have led to a net reduction in coverage.  That is not supported by survey data or insurance companies, many of which report they have retained the vast majority of their 2013 customers by renewing old policies. . .  "We are talking about a very small fraction of the country" who lost coverage, said Katherine Carman, a Rand economist . . .  [Surveys by national researchers agree.]

Can you imagine how successful it might have been -- or will become -- without such all-out Republican opposition?   Besides the majority of states that did not accept the Medicaid expansion offer from the federal government, some states even made it illegal for any state official to assist people in accessing the federal marketplace.

Pure politics.   Wait for it to backfire.

Ralph