Monday's nationwide rush to sign up for federal health care shouldn't have surprised anyone.
Finally, as the deadline to sign up arrived, the prevailing news reports were about the program, not the politics surrounding the federal Affordable Care Act.
People responded, knowing the impending deadline was upon them. It was their last chance to get affordable health care or face consequences for not having insurance.
Suddenly, the questions were about what kind of coverage families could have under this "Obamacare" that had been so famously derided.
The focus returned to the original objective of providing access to affordable health care for everyone while politics took a back seat.
People were learning what health care coverage would really cost them, once they knew about subsidies to reduce the cost or about tax credits that would help come tax time. A lot of lower-income people found out they could have health care at really low cost.
In Arkansas, where incomes are commonly low, most families get some sort of break under the program.
Plus, they get regular access to health care, which had been unavailable to people with pre-existing conditions and unaffordable to others who just couldn't carve the money out of the family budget.
There will still be objections to Obamacare and a renewed effort by its fiercest opponents to tear the program down in this election cycle.
The arguments against it, however, may prove harder to sell as families experience better health and the peace of mind that comes with affordable insurance.
Reports out of Washington indicated more than 7 million Americans were expected to have signed up for the federal health insurance by midnight Monday.
By midday on Monday, the HealthCare.gov website recorded about 1.6 million visitors, although many got an automated message about the high volumes requiring them to wait to enroll. They could enter an email address to be alerted when to try again, however, and clearly many did.
Anyone who began the process by the deadline will be able to complete it and should have coverage by May 1.
Those who didn't sign up in time and don't have other insurance are subject to penalties that will be collected at tax time.
Some of the 11th-hour signups came from people wanting to avoid the fines for not signing up, but more apparently came from procrastinators.
No one believes the Affordable Care Act is a perfect law. Changes are certain to come as the nation lives with it.
Seven million enrollees, as significant as that sounds, isn't anywhere close to all the uninsured Americans who could qualify. Many more should sign up and some will in future years. But these seven million signal a stronger start than expected as Obamacare is implemented.
The rollout of the program was a disaster, largely because of technical failure.
Mistakes made in setting up some state exchanges to sell the insurance plans, including the failure of many states to accept an expansion of Medicaid to help their lower income citizens, will surely be addressed.
Even the Arkansas Legislature, which put a ridiculous clamp on the state's ability to provide educational information about the program's availability, might eventually come around to the reality that Arkansas people need this health insurance and they need to know how to get it.
At least Arkansas lawmakers created the "private option" to use those available Medicaid dollars to buy private insurance for Arkansans who qualify. And they've extended the program for a second year.
Get ready. The political side of the Obamacare story will be center stage again soon.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said again on Monday that Republicans remain committed to repealing the law -- not fixing it, but getting rid of it.
That's the story that dominated the news before and since the law's passage in 2010. Lawsuits that led to the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding most of the law's provisions propelled the story as the Congress kept battling to kill the law.
The political story is certain to dominate this year's mid-term congressional elections, including those in Arkansas, just as it will impact legislative contests and others.
Still, time may be on the side of the proponents of affordable health care as all of these newly insured Americans find out what the law really means for them and their families. Millions more should be right behind them for the next signup opportunity.
Commentary on 04/02/2014