Obamacare's 2013 Sign-Up Totals. Six Million Signed Up For Coverage

The Emblem Of Success

... and becoming more successful every day.

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"2.1 million people have signed up for private coverage through the exchanges. That was the biggest news out of today's conference call, where Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters that 2.1 million have signed up for coverage through Dec. 28. That includes the 1.1 million that the White House had announced this past Sunday, who had enrolled through Dec. 24 on HealthCare.gov. There are also 3.9 million people who have been found eligible for Medicaid...7,000 people have called a special hotline because they had trouble enrolling by January." Sarah Kliff in The Washington Post.

Explainer: Everything you need to know about life under Obamacare. Sarah Kliff and Ezra Klein in The Washington Post.

Key read: 8 Obamacare wonks share their predictions for 2014. Jonathan Cohn in The New Republic.

Consumers start using coverage under Obamacare. "Kathy Hornbach of Tucson is not wasting any time before using her new health insurance coverage, which took effect on New Year's Day. Ms. Hornbach, 57, has an appointment with a cardiologist on Thursday for a stress test...Ms. Hornbach, who has had breast cancer and retired early from the technology industry, said that insurance companies in Arizona had refused to cover her until about two years ago, when she got a policy with monthly premiums of $285 and a deductible of $5,500 a year. Last month, using the federal insurance exchange, she bought a midlevel silver plan with lower premiums and deductible." Robert Pear and Abby Goodnough in The New York Times.

All heck did not break loose. "Hospitals nationwide reported a relatively quiet day, without any surge of newly insured people filling emergency rooms with pressing medical needs. The White House reported no problems." Sandhya Somashekhar, Robert Barnes and Michelle Boorstein in The Washington Post.

Obama's OFA begins effort to showcase personal health care testimonials. "OFA's digital push, titled "This Is Why: Health Care Reform Matters," comes as the White House, congressional Democrats and their allies try to shift the public's attention from the botched rollout of the HealthCare.gov website to the real-life benefits of the law for those who previously were uninsured or underinsured. The site, which will expand in coming days with more personal testimonials and videos, is designed to make sure people see not just the Affordable Care Act enrollment statistics, but also specific ways in which the law is benefiting everyday Americans, an OFA spokeswoman said." Philip Rucker in The Washington Post.

@noamscheiber: One Obamacare saving grace: Unlike Moore, I think it brings us closer to single-payer. Once more and more people on exchanges

COHN: Five rules for talking about Obamacare. "Consider the real counterfactual...It will be tempting to judge Obamacare by comparing it to the status quo. But the status quo was changing already. Preserving it was simply not an option. If we want to make a judgment about Obamacare, we have to consider the changes that would have taken place in the law's absence--and then decide which would have been better. It's a more difficult standard, because nobody knows what the future would have been like. But it's also a more honest standard." Jonathan Cohn in The New Republic.