California's Obamacare Gets Praise From NY Times

As criticism about Obamacare continues to hit headlines, a New York Times op-ed columnist has praised California's way of implementing the program.

In a piece by Paul Krugman that appeared Nov. 24 online and today in print, the author writes, "What we have in California, then, is a proof of concept. Yes, Obamacare is workable — in fact, done right, it works just fine."

Krugman is referring to the state exchange known as Covered California that went live Oct. 1.  

Krugman writes, "California authorities have been especially forthcoming with data tracking the progress of enrollment. And the numbers are increasingly encouraging. For one thing, enrollment is surging. At this point, more than 10,000 applications are being completed per day, putting the state well on track to meet its overall targets for 2014 coverage."

Krugman argues that Obamacare does work in states that allow it to so, claiming that California can be looked at as a successful "controlled experiment." 

"If a system can work for 38 million people, it can work for America as a whole," Krugman writes.

While health coverage applications received by Covered California are increasing on a weekly basis, data from the agency show that as of Nov. 19 state residents had filed 360,464 applications with the exchange. Krugman cites that California came into health reform with 22 percent of its non-elderly population uninsured. It would appear the state still has a very long way to go toward complete coverage.

But Krugman is not alone in his praise.

In a Nov. 23 news story from the Fresno Bee, reporter Barbara Anderson pointed out that Covered California has had some website glitches, but overall the program has an edge over other states' programs.

According to the article, since going live Covered California has captured 30 percent of the total number of Obamacare enrollees in the U.S., even though the state of California makes up only 10 percent of the nation's population.

What are your thoughts about Covered California? Have you signed on? What was your experience?