3 million enrollees and Utah give Obamacare new momentum

The enrollment in Obamcare is accelerating.  Data released last week shows that about 3 million Americans have now signed up for health insurance through the marketplaces.  This puts achieving the Administration’s 7 million goal by the end of March a very real possibility.  Not bad for a train wreck.

But most Obamacare supporters expected enrollment to dramatically pick up as the process rolled along.  However, there was also an unexpected announcement from the red state of Utah last week.

Governor Gary Herbert said that his GOP-controlled state would expand Medicaid, something South Carolina and most other red states have refused to do.  Herbert plans to ask the federal government for some latitude in how the expansion takes place but for his state’s below-the-poverty-level uninsured he said that “doing nothing is not an option”.

The message is growing clearer with each week that goes by.  Obamacare is here, it’s working, and Americans want the affordable health insurance it is providing.  My prediction is that Utah will not be the last red state to get on the train.

Will South Carolina eventually get on board the Medicaid expansion and stop treating its uninsured poor as unworthy, second class citizens?  That will be up to the voters come November.

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