Obamacare really isn’t targeted to lower costs nationally or make people healthier; it’s targeted to make Americans more financially stable by shifting costs around. This analysis coheres with the first Oregon study from last year, that found Medicaid users weren’t more healthy those the un-enrolled but were more financially secure. The question then becomes: is there a better way to help make health care more affordable for those struggling to pay?

A groundbreaking new study shows that Medicaid users go to the emergency room more when they get added to the program. Whatever else it does, covering people with insurance doesn’t seem to save money.There’s not an easy way to solve this problem, but surely a big part of the solution needs to involve both better price signals in the system and a shift away from inefficient and costly service delivery practices.

The numbers are in: after numerous extensions, exemptions, and delays, about two million people signed up for insurance in state and federal exchanges by the December 24th deadline. What kind of health care experience will those two million people have? The WSJ reports that people who bought new insurance on the exchange are flocking to providers to make use of their old coverage before it expires. Whatever you think about the benefits of networks restrictions generally in lowering costs, the particular way the ACA is pushing people into smaller networks will ensure that the law will continue getting bad press far into the future, fixed website or not.

The Obama administration is doing everything it can to save the Affordable Care Act in advance of the December 23rd deadline to sign up for coverage, and the panic is showing. For weeks now the administration has been delaying provisions, tweaking standards, and exempting people from the law’s initial rules (e.g. here), and now it has delivered the coup de grace. The New York Times reports that people who have had their insurance cancelled will be exempt from any penalties for non-compliance with the individual mandate in the coming year.It’s still very unclear where all this is going to lead, but this is one the clearest signs of crisis we’ve seen yet from the administration.

After weeks of almost daily PR disasters for the Obama administration, the travails of the Affordable Care Act have receded from headlines—and some of the current reports are even modestly positive. What’s going on? Last-minute maneuvers by the White House, coupled with the fact that it will take time for many of the law’s provisions to work themselves out, have given the Obama administration a respite from the 24/7 criticism. That respite could be interpreted at any time by unexpected bad news, or it could be the new status quo for the Affordable Care Act. But based on the data we currently have, it still looks like the next shoe will drop on January 1, and another wave of negative coverage will follow.

The LA Times reports that California’s state exchange gave insurers information on “tens of thousands” of California residents who browsed the site without asking to be contacted. In a paradox worthy of the ACA, however, when you do want insurers to have your data, then they might not be getting it. The ACA is still waiting for its Golidilocks moment, when it finally be able to hand over the “just right” data group to insurers.

The lowest-priced plan on the Affordable Care Act exchange could increase deductibles by 42 percent over the pre-ACA individual market average. Without other cost-saving measures, this increase could cause a lot of financial distress for those affected. This is a feature, not a bug, of any health care reform that expands access before tackling costs.