I think the demand for ACA means a lot of people are hurting.

[trumad]

Folks living life with some type of physical ailment because they could not afford healthcare.

I'm reading stories about long lines of people, mostly poor, at healthcare exchange locations throughout the country.

I am so glad these people finally have the chance to be taken care of.

[frazzled]

1. I'm heartened that so many are interested

Because on the Internets, here, we seem to hear mostly from the people who claim not to want health insurance and who resent that they will be required to purchase it or face a fine. The reality is, most people really, really want to get insurance, even those who are not "hurting" at the moment. Even the young.

I remember when my son (this was not so long ago) began graduate school and purchased the (very reasonable) health insurance, but he didn't want to pay $200 more for the year for the dental insurance that was offered. One morning, after having been out to dinner with him, he called to say he needed the number of our dentist--he'd broken a tooth at dinner the night before. How could that have happened? I asked. He'd only eaten soup! The pumpkin soup had pumpkin seeds in it, and he'd broken part of a tooth off. He went to the dentist, and needed a $2200 crown. (We had to help him pay, because he was a poor graduate student on a stipend salary.)

Needless to say, when the next benefits period came around, he signed up for that $200 dental insurance. It was a lesson well learned.

[Orsino]

2. We already knew that...

...but the good news is that GOP and mass media are going to find the pain progressively harder to ignore. Obamacare registrations will put hard numbers on things, and perhaps best of all will register a lot of new voters who will be doubly grateful if they get affordable treatment.

[JoePhilly]

3. Exactly ... this problem is what the ACA was all about ...

... but the media worked hard to ignore the problem because if they don't report on a thing, that thing does not exist.

Now, its going to be much harder to do that. Millions of people will be getting help, and there will be data, and success stories that will be hard to ignore.

[flamingdem]

4. Yes, ACA gives a voice to those

who have been hurting. Many probably have almost given up and for sure some conditions have gone untreated for a very long time. Victims, and they are, don't always have the strength or ability to fight for their rights. That's my take on why it seems like they were silent.

[leftstreet]

5. +1 Although I'd say 'silenced,' not 'silent'

I can't count how many people I've heard in the past decade, across all political and apolitical lines, state in various ways the US needs a national nonprofit healthcare system

This is not the system anyone was looking for

We'll have to see what happens

[leftyladyfrommo]

6. Hadn't thought about that aspect.

Now we are really seeing the numbers out there.