Obamacare can't seem to catch a break. A month in and its problems continue to pile up.

First, it was the disastrous unveiling of Healthcare.gov, which was supposed to help Americans buy health insurance coverage, but instead, gave those who tried to navigate it either a splitting headache or rapidly rising blood pressure.

Now, this week, consumers are waking up to another reality of the law. Remember when President Obama said that under Obamacare, "if you like your healthcare coverage, you can keep it"? Not so much.

For example, if you bought your healthcare coverage on the individual market before Congress passed Obamacare – and that plan no longer adheres to the law's requirements – that plan will be cancelled. It's a wrinkle that millions of Americans are finding out in the form of cancellation letters from their health insurance companies.

But this particular element of Obamacare is not a bug of the law. It's a feature.

In fact, it's yet another reminder that, for all its hiccups, Obamacare is well on its way to transforming how Americans receive healthcare – and almost certainly for the better. For most Americans, Obamacare will mean little evident change. If, like the vast majority of Americans, you receive your insurance through your employer today … you will continue to receive it from them tomorrow. And you will do so with greater security and more flexibility if you leave your job.

The real change, however, is on the individual market, which before Obamacare was a godawful mess. The use of pre-existing conditions to deny coverage allowed companies to cherrypick healthy Americans. If you were "lucky" enough to get coverage in the market, you were likely forced to deal with high premiums, higher deductibles and huge co-insurance requirements. Benefit offerings were skimpy at best, which meant that if you had a health emergency, chances were the insurer would only cover a small part of the bill. Calling it insurance was an insult to the word itself.

Forcing insurance companies to offer better coverage – and a minimal set of benefits with no trapdoors for consumers – is an unqualified good.

Of course, there will be some Americans who will end up experiencing actual sticker shock in the form of higher premiums. But let's be clear, this is an incredibly small segment of the population. It's basically healthy, young people who earn enough money not to qualify for subsidies (which are available to Americans who make up to 400 times the poverty level, or $92,000 for a family of four) and still buy their insurance on the individual market. But even if you do end up paying higher premiums, you will have coverage that actually can be described as insurance, with broader benefits and actual security if you become seriously ill.

However, little of this story is getting through to the public – and there's plenty of blame to go around.

Not surprisingly, Republicans, who have seized on every piece of bad news about Obamacare like a rabid dog, are behaving the worst. Blanket Republican opposition to Obamacare has become such an ingrained part of our nation's politics that few appreciate its unprecedented nature. As more than a few commentators have pointed out, when Medicare Part D was passed, in 2004, Democrats strongly opposed it. Two years later, when it went into effect, it was a disaster. Computer systems didn't work properly (sound familiar?), seniors couldn't get accurate information, and the situation was so bad that President George W Bush actually had to apologize in his state of the union speech for the lousy implementation.

Did Democrats celebrate? Did they try to repeal the bill? Did they hold the government hostage until Bush agreed to delay its key provisions?

No. Instead, they did something novel, useful and mature: they tried to fix it.

Republicans have, of course, not only rejected any effort that would help Obamacare operate more effectively, but they've worked tirelessly to sabotage its implementation. In at least 17 states, Republican lawmakers have placed roadblocks in front of Obamacare navigators, who help individuals sign up for care. And they're not being shy about it.

"Let me tell you what we're doing: everything in our power to be an obstructionist," bragged Ralph Hudgens, who just happens to be Georgia's insurance commissioner. Some GOP congressmen have openly boasted that they won't help constituents sign up for the law. "Our position is, if you want to sign up, you got to call HHS [the Department of Health and Human Services," said Kansas Rep Tim Huelskamp:

So we will say, "Call [HHS Secretary] Kathleen Sebelius' office if you want to figure that out."

Worst of all, two dozen Republican-led states are refusing to expand (federally funded) Medicaid to their citizens – thus denying them coverage. That's 8 million people who will be directly hurt – and may die sooner than they should – simply so that Republicans can make a political point. Indeed, listening to Republicans complain about Americans receiving cancellation letters from their healthcare companies while actively denying them care is a bit like killing your parents and then begging for mercy because you're an orphan.

Of course, heartless nihilism from Republicans is nothing new, but what's most frustrating is that the press is largely playing along with the GOP narrative, highlighting Obamacare's rough start, hyping problems and largely downplaying the unmistakable and frankly transformational benefits of the new legislation. The fourth estate's search for scandal and bureaucratic malfeasance on Obamacare can brook no good news.

Still, President Obama is hardly off the hook here. When he sold healthcare reform, he promised "nothing … requires you to change what you have." That wasn't exactly true. But it was indicative of the rosy manner in which the administration described a post-Obamacare America.

The White House understood a bit too well that the parochialism of the American people was more powerful than their altruistic impulses. Years and years of being told by politicians that government can't do anything right and that its expansion can only bring negative results have bred knee-jerk resistance to any change in social policy.

That is why when President Obama made the case for reform, he focused so attentively on the fact that things would just coast along under Obamacare. Rather than challenge Americans to embrace healthcare reform because of the larger public good that would come from such an effort, Obama presented change in the most restrained manner imaginable; he talked up only the bill's positive aspects with none of the downside. It might have been the politically expedient move, but it came with a price – one that the White House is paying now.

While Obamacare only directly affects a small percentage of the population, you simply can't reform one-seventh of the nation's economy and not expect that every single person who uses healthcare won't – in some way, small or large – be affected. That far more Americans will see benefits than disadvantages is of critical importance – but it's not the whole story.

Obamacare's current problems, while frustrating, shall pass. What we'll be left with is very likely a profound transformation in America's healthcare system. The changes wrought by Obamacare are already leading to historic reductions in healthcare costs. Far more important, millions of Americans will enjoy the security of healthcare coverage and can bid farewell to the personal and economic anxiety that comes with being uninsured.

In the end, that's truly the only story that really matters.