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That seems to be happening right now, in two very different areas. In one area, we have the refusal of people to sign up for Obamacare in anything like the numbers that were predicted, or needed to make it work. Writing in the Washington Post back in November, Jennifer Rubin observed:

It is a coin flip, at best, for the president as to whether his signature achievement, his only achievement, will fail. It will be repealed in essence by a popular referendum: The mass refusal of people to go along with Obama's top-down, compulsory system that was set to transform a sixth of the economy. That possibility should traumatize and probably is traumatizing the White House. ... The political implications of this are almost too enormous to calculate.

"Now, as February draws near, things don't look much better. Far fewer than half the number needed by March 31 have signed up. And, as it turns out, most of the people signing up for Obamacare aren't the uninsured for whom it was supposedly enacted, but people who were previously insured (many of whom lost their previous insurance because of Obamacare's new requirements). "At most," writes Bloomberg's Megan McArdle, "they've signed up 15% of the uninsured that they were expecting to enroll. ... Where are the uninsured? Did hardly any of them want coverage beginning Jan. 1?" It looks that way."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/01/26/obamacare-numbers-health-exchanges-insurance-obama-column/4913341/

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HHS confirmed to The Hill that about 800,000 people have enrolled so far in January, on top of the 2.2 million who selected plans from October through December.

HHS confirmed to The Hill that about 800,000 people have enrolled so far in January, on top of the 2.2 million who selected plans from October through December.

That’s encouraging news for the Obama administration, as some experts had predicted a fall-off in enrollments for January. A flood of last-minute consumers is expected for March, when open enrollment ends for 2014, and the penalty associated with the individual mandate kicks in.

If March enrollments reach a new high, and there isn’t a significant fall-off in February, the administration might even approach the Congressional Budget Office estimate of having 7 million enrollees for 2014.

http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/196341-obamacare-enrollments-hit-3-million

Obamacare Enrollments Continue Piling Up In January, Now 3.3 Million

Obamacare had its second-best enrollment month in January, adding more than 1 million people to its rolls, a slight but expected drop from December and much improved from the law's rough opening months.

The 1.1 million enrollments as of Feb. 1 bring the law's total to 3.3 million -- still behind its projected totals ahead of the Oct. 1 launch, which had anticipated that many sign-ups by the end of December. But after the law signed up a fraction of its expected enrollees in October and November -- before HealthCare.gov was declared fixed -- it's continued positive news for the law...According to the Washington Post's Sarah Kliff, January was the first individual month that Obamacare beat its pre-launch projected enrollment.

"These encouraging trends show that more Americans are enrolling every day, and finding quality, affordable coverage in the marketplace,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement.



Enrollment among young people ticked up slightly in January; 27 percent of enrollees were ages 18 to 34, compared to the 24 percent in October through December. About 25 percent of its sign-ups are now in that core demographic, again well behind the initial projections, but at a level that experts say should allow for the law's actuarial survival.

- more -

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/obamacare-enrollment-january