Paul Krugman: Obamacare Will Be A Debacle — For Republicans

… the biggest test case was always going to be California …. well, the preliminary numbers are in – and they’re looking very good, with costs coming in below expectations. At this point, it looks as if this thing is indeed going to work.

….. the whole political calculus was supposed to be that Republicans in red states could point to the horrors of Obamacare and ride them to political victory. Instead, it looks as if we’re going to see blue-state residents reaping the benefits of a functional health care system, while red-state residents are denied many of those benefits, for what looks like no better reason than mean-spirited spite – because what’s going on is, indeed, mean-spirited spite.

Predictions that Obamacare will be a big political issue are probably right – but not in the way gleeful conservatives imagined.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/24/obamacare-will-be-a-debacle-for-republicans/

CNN Money: Health insurers in California will charge an average of $304 a month for the cheapest silver-level plan in state-based exchanges next year, according to rates released Thursday by Covered California, which is implementing the Affordable Care Act there. But many residents will pay a lot less than that for coverage.

Rates will vary by region, age and level of coverage, and many lower-income Californias will qualify for federal subsidies that will greatly lower the premiums…..

…. Oregon and Washington recently posted their rates, as well. They were also lower than some had expected.

“Many people will see rates similar to what they’re paying now, or in some cases, lower – and with substantially better benefits,” the Washington Insurance Department wrote in a blog post. “We’re definitely not seeing the huge rate increases that some insurers had predicted.”

http://money.cnn.com/2013/05/23/news/economy/california-obamacare-premiums/index.html

Matthew Yglesias: ObamaCare Rollout Is Going To Be Like a Train Getting You To Your Destination In A Timely Manner

…. over the next 18 months you’re going to read a lot of stories about problems with Affordable Care Act implementations and many of those stories are going to be accurate but fundamentally Affordable Care Act implementation is going to work out great and people are going to love it.

The latest evidence comes to us from California, America’s largest state and one of the states that’s tried the hardest to actually implement ObamaCare well. As Sarah Kliff explains, their exchanges are getting set up and it looks like premiums for “silver” and “bronze” plans are both going to be lower than was previously expected. Far from a “train wreck” in other words, the biggest single set of clients for the program is getting something like a nice smooth TGV ride…

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/05/24/obamacare_implementation_good_news.html