Health Affairs aired the fourth installment of its Health Affairs Conversations series yesterday afternoon, hosted by Chris Fleming of Health Affairs and featuring CHIR’s Sarah Dash, the American Enterprise Institute’s Joe Antos, and Manatt Health Solution’s Joel Ario.

In a lively discussion, the guests provided a lay of the land on where Marketplaces stand after the first two weeks of open enrollment, including technical issues, the high level of interest in the Marketplaces, and how state and federal Marketplaces are adapting to the challenges.

According to the guests, the last two weeks of enrollment have given us reasons to be both optimistic and concerned about the implementation of the ACA’s Marketplaces. Dash reminded the audience that despite initial technical challenges with Marketplace websites, the rules of the road for fixing the country’s broken health care system are in place and will open the door to health insurance for millions of consumers.  In the long term, the guests also discussed what the early enrollment metrics–particularly with respect to younger, healthier individuals–indicate for the prospect of creating robust competitive health insurance Marketplaces with balanced risk pools. While it may be too soon to offer a prognosis on the ultimate success of the law, the guests pointed out some of the critical indicators to watch over the coming weeks and months.

You can find their discussion here.