There will never be one number that tells the full story of the law’s impact on health care costs, the underlying economic health of the law, its effect on the federal deficit or job creation. Obamacare will be a statistical kaleidoscope for its entire legal life—even after this Congress or another changes it under political duress.

Even so, 7.1 million enrollees is a milestone. It doesn’t guarantee the law will work, and it doesn’t ensure premiums won’t rise or doctors and nurses will be available to provide the care promised by the insurance acquired. But it does represent a watershed moment in the White House effort to preserve what it so conspicuously and comically jeopardized.

Press secretary Jay Carney cannot stop invoking the word “remarkable” to describe Obamacare’s comeback saga. What is so remarkable about an administration, with three years to plan, attaining the agreed-upon goal of enrolling 7 million Americans? That was a number that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius embraced in congressional testimony and health care hands within the White House thought attainable. The remarkable part is not the number of enrollees on March 31, but that it was achieved after an unprecedented two-month act of self-sabotage.

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