The Known Unknowns of Obamacare’s Racial Justice Impact

There are at least three crucial, unanswered questions as the first enrollment period ends.

By Kai Wright Mar 31, 2014

Today’s the day. As of midnight, if you’ve not enrolled in a health insurance plan under the Affordable Care Act (or asked for a special extension), you’ll have to wait until 2015 to buy coverage on the law’s exchanges. Medicaid enrollment continues all year.

The Obama administration has already declared the tumultous enrollment process of the past six months a success. After the rocky start of healthcare.gov, the Congressional Budget Office estimated 6 million people would enroll in private plans this year. Last week, the White House announced it had hit that number. That’s an important political victory for the administration, to be sure. But health policy wonks across the ideological spectrum agree the number doesn’t say much useful about the overall effort to fix our health care system. It doesn’t answer any of at least three crucial questions.