Today’s the last chance this year to sign up for Obamacare – if we can still call it that

“There’s no such thing as Obamacare.”

That clip made me perk up when I heard it.

No such thing as Obamacare? It sounded a little like Vladimir Putin saying, ‘Russian troops? What Russian troops?’

But Senator Angus King, Independent of Maine, was trying to make a point when he said that on Fox, Sunday – that all these complaints about how you can’t keep your doctor, it costs more than you thought, rules seem to keep changing: it sounds a lot like the old system this was supposed to fix.

“There’s no such thing as Obamacare. You can’t sign up for Obamacare. You sign up for an Anthem policy or an Aetna policy. It’s private insurance and private insurance companies have been doing closed networks for years,” said King.

He’s right about that. Private insurers make deals with doctors and tell you which they’ll pay for and which they won’t, and they’re free to do that now. Which I think a lot of people may have forgotten.

What’s different now is that these private companies are forced to follow at least two rules they would have laughed at before: They can’t turn down anyone, and they can’t drop you if you get too expensive.

There are plenty of politicians who want to make the November election about health care.

And the real test is coming: Does anybody get turned down? Does anyone get kicked for getting too sick? Do hospitals still have trouble getting paid when poor patients get sick? Can people still end up bankrupted by an illness?

And of course, Senator Ted Cruz’s prediction is, “The best way for them to get health insurance is to get a job. And Obamacare is the biggest job killer in this country.”

Cruz predicts the economy will tank.

We are all a part of the big experiment. Let the testing begin.