“I expect at least 80 percent of those in the existing individual health insurance market to lose their coverage by the end of 2014,” writes respected health care expert Bob Laszewski. “What we don’t know is just how many of these people had to buy new coverage on January 1.” Piecing together bits of data from California, Washington state and other places, Laszewski concludes that it’s likely large numbers of new enrollees come from those who lost coverage under Obamacare. “Washington State might report 100,000 private plan enrollments by year-end,” Laszewski writes. “But if they cancelled 130,000 people who can only get a subsidized policy in their exchange, is this a big accomplishment?”

Obamacare was supposed to insure the uninsured. It is doing that, in relatively small numbers. But it appears a large part of the Democrats’ national health care scheme is a kind of giant churn operation, forcing Americans out of existing coverage into Obamacare coverage and then touting the number of new Affordable Care Act enrollees. The real numbers will take a while to sort out, but with Obamacare, it’s safe to assume the administration’s claims are less than they seem.