Me: The rollout was rough, but forgivable particularly with the way the GOP sought to kneecap this every step of the way. The glitches yesterday were much less so, particularly since they managed to get things running much more smoothly in the last month or so. Allowing applications in the queue to be counted as having met the deadline helps those who procrastinated until the last minute.

They’ll have to work those out, but for the more than 6 million (far more once you factor in those who got expanded Medicare) who now have health insurance, this is a huge boon.

It will help in the long run since those who are in the marketplace will have some idea of how it works come next year’s enrollment, which will start November 15.

And the bugs will be worked out along the way as people who enter the marketplace due to life status changes (marriage/divorce, birth, death, etc.)

The private insurers will still have to be held accountable for their actions, including gaming the in-network provisions to limit their exposure (but that’s something they do in the employer-insurance markets too).

None of the success will mean anything to the GOP, which sees this as another government program to destroy, even though it’s essentially a private marketplace that the feds set up that didn’t exist before, and which subsidies are going to pay insurance companies to make up the difference and to reduce the cost to those taxpayers who qualify.

Who benefits from this? Taxpayers (insureds), who didn’t have insurance previously. But mostly it’s the insurers who get full payment for their premiums and hospitals who don’t have to deal with as many uninsureds and have to suck up their indigent care setasides (or run in the red).