Here are two facts that have gotten very little attention amid all the controversy about insurance plan cancellations and “rate shock.”

Fact one: Thanks to Obamacare’ subsidies, several million people now have the opportunity to get private insurance at essentially no cost.

Fact two: Those ultra-cheap policies are pretty threadbare. They might keep people out of bankruptcy, but they still would leave beneficiaries exposed to thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses a year.

The facts lend themselves to very different narratives about Obamacare, which is one reason, I'm sure, not many people have noticed them. Among the few who have are Reed Abelson and Katie Thomas, reporters for the New York Times. As their Monday story explains, the least expensive insurance plans available in many state marketplaces cost very little—in some cases just $200 or $300 a month. Some people buying insurance will qualify for tax credits worth more money than those premiums, which means they’ll be able to get those policies for free or close to free if they’d like.

That’s a great deal, right? Not necessarily. As Abelson and Thomas explain, the Affordable Care Act divides policies into “metal” categories—platinum, gold, silver, and bronze. The cheapest policies are the bronze plans and there’s a reason they cost so little: They don’t cover much. They’ll take care of free preventative visits, as all plans must do under Obamacare, and they might make some small contribution on particular services like doctor visits or prescriptions. But for the most part the people who hold these policies will be responsible for paying bills out-of-pocket until those expenses hit $6,250 for an individual or $12,500 for a family—the maximum allowed under the law. (If you read the story about Dianne Barrette, the Florida woman looking for a new policy, you may remember that bronze plans were among her options—and they didn't provide much financial protection upfront.)