“How’s it [Obamacare] doing? The inescapable answer is: very well, thank you. This will disappoint the legions of politicians and pundits, chiefly Republicans and conservatives, who became heavily invested in the act’s failure–so heavily that where they couldn’t point to tangible evidence of failure, which was most of the time, they resorted to distortion, outright fabrication and obstructionist legal strategies…

The signs are that America’s old system of health coverage, which relied on employer-sponsored care and condemned those without it to enormous premiums, to uninsurability, and to unmet medical needs, is being supplanted by a new system in which coverage is available to everyone at a reasonable and affordable price, no one needs to feel trapped in a job merely for the insurance, and the prospect of medical bankruptcy will recede over time.

There remain holdouts who complain that the ACA is an infringement of ‘freedom.’ That’s true only under a bizarro-world definition of ‘freedom.’ Before the ACA, Americans were ‘free’ to be locked into jobs they detested; to be abused, ripped off or rejected outright by insurance companies; and to suffer medical conditions without treatment.

The ACA hasn’t changed every aspect of that in a single year, and its ability to meet all of its goals remains conjectural. But so far it has pointed the way to a better–yes, radically better–system of American healthcare.”