As the new law turns one, the occasion recalls a greeting purportedly sent to a company president after surgery, “The Board of Directors wishes you a speedy recovery by a vote of six to five.”

A year later, the public is still confused, Republicans swear to kill the law and the White House is sending out explainers to sing its praises. It’s like combining a wake with a birthday party.

A new poll shows “Americans don’t think they like the Affordable Care Act, but they don’t want to be without it or left with whatever Republicans want to put in its place.”

A close student of the law, the Washington Post‘s Ezra Klein concludes that it is “a lot more incremental than many people realize. More modest, by far, than the health-care overhauls proposed by Presidents Clinton, Nixon, Johnson and Truman.

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