The Crucial Tests for Obamacare

Now that the March 31 deadline for people to sign up for health insurance has passed, brace yourself for a lot of political kvetching. Supporters will claim that the late surge in enrollment proves the Affordable Care Act is a success, while opponents will counter that continued technical glitches and last-minute changes show the law to be a failure.

That’s background noise: The real challenge is to respond to at least three kinds of concerns. The first involves problems with the law itself. Many state-run exchanges are poorly run; states such as Maryland and Massachusetts need help to fix them in time for the next open enrollment period, which starts in November. The law’s programs to cushion insurers from excess risk may also need reinforcement—if not enough young people sign up for insurance—to lessen any shocks to premiums next year.