Washington state has a state-run health benefit exchange. The Seattle Times reported today that in the exchange's first week of operation, 9,452 people have signed up for insurance for themselves or their families. In addition, 10,000 applications for insurance have been completed and pending. The exchange website has had 165,332 unique visitors. More than 39,000 accounts were also set up (uncompleted applications). So, almost 20,000 Washington citizens/families will have insurance coverage starting January 1 that they did not have before. This is after ONE WEEK of operation!
State officials estimate that about 1 million Washington residents do not currently have health insurance (i out of every 7 residents), and they are expecting to enroll 130,000 people in 2013-2014, and another 325,000 people will be eligible to sign up for FREE INSURANCE through expanded Medicaid.
That is real progress on getting adequate, affordable health care to the people previously at risk of health calamities (financial calamities). This is what Republicans are against? Thank goodness they cannot stop its "onslaught."