by Dan Diamond, California HealthLine Contributing Editor, April 23, 2014

Joel Ario says he meant it as a compliment.

It was January 2011, and Ario -- the White House's point man on exchanges at the time -- was having dinner with Diana Dooley, California's newly installed HHS secretary. And seeking to praise California, Ario told Dooley that her state had emerged as one of the nation's "pace cars" when it came to implementing the Affordable Care Act.

Dooley quickly corrected him, Ario recalled in an interview with California Healthline this week.

"[Dooley] told me, 'Pace cars don't actually win the race,'" Ario said. "'We want to be the lead car.'"

Forty months later, California's clearly pulled ahead of the pack.

No state signed up more residents during Obamacare's first open enrollment period, or grew its Medicaid rolls by a larger amount. Read more...

From San Francisco Business Times (Rauber, "Bay Area BizTalk," 3/31), et al.

About 1.2 million California residents signed up for health coverage through the state insurance exchange as of 2 a.m. Monday, the last day of open enrollment, the San Francisco Business Times' "Bay Area BizTalk" reports (Rauber, "Bay Area BizTalk," San Francisco Business Times, 3/31).

Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee said there was a "huge surge" in interest as open enrollment drew to a close this week (Gorman, "Capsules," Kaiser Health News, 4/1). For instance: 155,988 residents enrolled in coverage through the exchange from March 24 to 2 a.m. on March 31; and 389,840 residents created an account on the exchange during that time (Covered California release [1], 3/31).  Read more...