Which confirms the impression that individual policyholders have had a lousy status quo even if they believe their policy is the greatest

"Lousy"...by what standard? Yours? HHS? The policyholder?

This is the problem I have with nearly every news media outlet, and also with generalizations.

Believe me, it drives me nuts when Fox News reports that 300,000 people are getting termination letters. They make it sound like all 300,000 people are going to be out on the street begging for spare change. But the more liberal media sources are being equally dishonest by saying (in effect) , "come to the exchanges, you'll get a better plan". In some cases, they're finding that both premiums AND deductibles are higher than what they had. For middle and lower-middle class Americans who were already screwed this year by the payroll tax hike, who saw a president who tried to issue an executive order to give Congress a pay increase at the beginning of 2013, it's like salt in an open wound.

SOME of the plans policyholders had WERE lousy, and some where not. Some will make out better after this (maybe) and some will not. But it was either pure folly or blatant dishonesty for a president to make a promise (no less than 23 times in public speeches) that "you can keep your plan and your doctor". Even those "keeping their plans" might not be able to keep their doctor.

I know you speculated several weeks ago about blow-back that Republicans would face after the govt shutdown. Right now, the ones soiling their underwear BIG TIME are Democrats up for re-election one year from now. Last week Senate Democrats had a meeting with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and other senior officials to voice their anger about the current situation (and the recent news about employer health plans later in 2014), with some of them suggesting a 1 year delay of the mandate. It wouldn't shock me if they were some of the same Democrats who, just 30 days ago, were ripping the Republicans for proposing a one year delay as a condition of stopping the shutdown. Can't have it both ways...