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奥巴马医保又成关注重点

The coming week will see renewed focus on President Barack Obama’s signature health care law amid a reported end-of-year surge in people who have signed up for coverage¹. The news constitutes the most concrete sign to date that technical problems plaguing the Affordable² Care Act have subsided³, although the long-term success of the program remains⁴ in question.

新年将至，很多人抓紧2013年最后一两天登记加入被称为奥巴马医保的平价医保。奥巴马医保法这个星期将再次成为关注重点。尽管一直困扰平价医保网站的技术问题终于从新闻报道中消失，但长期来看，这个医保计划是否能取得成功还有待观察。

President Obama is on vacation in Hawaii, but the administration says more than one million people have now enrolled⁵ for private insurance through federal health care exchanges established under the law, also known as "Obamacare."

奥巴马总统正在夏威夷度假。政府说，已经有100多万人通过根据奥巴马医保法建立的联邦医保网站在私营保险公司投保。

Almost all of the new enrollees have signed up in December.  Millions visited the federal website last week ahead of a deadline for health care coverage beginning January 1.

几乎所有新的参保人都是12月加入的。上星期，数百万人赶在2014年1月1号最后期限之前登录联邦医保网站。

The enrollment⁶ surge offers the first glimmer⁷ of hope that the technical glitches⁸ that paralyzed the Affordable Care Act’s rollout are a thing of the past. Until now, President Barack Obama has been on the defensive⁹ about the law’s implementation¹⁰.

大批人参保终于让人松了一口气，导致平价医保刚一问世就陷于瘫痪的技术问题已经成为过去。迄今，在平价医保法实施问题上，奥巴马总统一直处于守势。

“The fact is, it did not happen in the first month, the first six weeks, in a way that was acceptable. And since I am in charge, obviously, we screwed it up,” Obama remarked.

他说：“头一个月，头6个星期，工作没能以可接受的方式展开。这事情由我负责，显然我们把事情搞砸了。”

Republicans continue to call for Obamacare’s repeal¹¹, contending that more Americans have had their existing health insurance policies cancelled than have benefitted from the law. Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, Democratic Senator Charles Schumer predicts the criticism will fade over time.

共和党人继续要求废除奥巴马医保。他们说，现有医疗保险遭取消的人数超过了受益于奥巴马医保的人。不过民主党参议员舒默预计，随着时间推移，批评声将逐渐平息。

“The bottom line is, there are a lot of good things in Obamacare that people like, and the more people see that, the more positive it is going to be.”

舒默说：“最根本的是，奥巴马医保有很多人们喜欢的优点，看到这一面的人越多，人们对它的评价就会越积极。”

A million enrollees is far short of the seven million goal the Obama administration set for the initial phase of the Affordable Care Act. And it remains to be seen whether large numbers of younger, healthier Americans will sign up for coverage. Without them, the economics of Obamacare will collapse¹².

现在有超过100万人参保，这和奥巴马政府为平价医保初始阶段制定的700万人参保的目标相比，还差得远。是否会有大量更年轻、更健康的美国人参保，尚有待观察。没有这些人参加，奥巴马医保在经济上将难以为继。