What If Obamacare Works?

Timothy Egan poses the question in today's New York Times editorial.

The cartoon version of the Affordable Care Act, that much-loathed government takeover of one-sixth of the economy, is now moving from Beltway gasbags and caricaturists into the hands of consumers. Its fate will be determined by the countless anecdotes of people who will apply the law to their lives.  The early indications are that most Americans will be pleasantly surprised. Millions of people, shopping and comparing prices on the exchanges set up by the states, are likely to get far better coverage for the same — or less — money than they pay now. The law, as honest conservatives predicted, before they orphaned their own idea, is injecting competition into a market dominated by a few big names.

It’s a fascinating moment, akin to the dawn of Social Security or Medicare. Republicans in the last three years actually did the country a favor by wildly overstating the case against a middle-ground approach to getting the United States closer to universal health care. As in 1935 and in 1965, the ossified right is warning once again of an impending end to American life as we know it. Thankfully, they’re right.

Honest conservatives, like David Frum, have made the same point since the health care reform debate.