All of this...step by step....simply leads us onto some giant step into Medicare being the one and only system left in the US by 2020. Maybe it was accidental or intentional....but I don’t see how we avoid it now.
I would not be surprised if the pool of applicants signing up for Obamacare are sicker in general then the 2014 pool because those who intended to take the penalty and not sign up in 2015 would most likely apply if they did get chronically sick in the intervening period which would escalate premium rates for the pool even further.
It’s successful in that it has evolved into a gimmedat program which is large enough to put the Republicans in mortal quaking fear of trying to repeal it.