The latest state to publish insurance rates under Obamacare is Maryland. The results seem consistent with the pattern we’ve seen so far. When state officials want the law to work, it works pretty well. And Maryland officials want the law to work.

The governor is a prominent Democrat and among Obamacare’s most vocal boosters. The state political establishment supports him. The officials in agencies working on Obamacare—the state Department of Health, the Insurance Administration, and the newly created Health Benefits Exchange—feel the same way. None of this is surprising: Maryland is a strongly blue state. Obama is popular there and, one imagines, so is his health plan.

The state also has a long, relatively successful history of regluating its health care system. It is, for example, the only state that sets prices for hospital services. Whether or not the system is as good as its promoters say, it means the state has an ample supply of officials who understand health care—and have a good working relationship with their private sector counterparts.

Even so, Obamacare presented Maryland officials with new challenges. In April, CareFirst, the state’s largest insurer, announced that it was seeking a 25 percent rate increase. It was the first such announcement and the first concrete sign that the offiicial, pre-subsidy insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act would rise in most states, because of new regulations that guarantee decent benefits and prohibit insurers from discriminating against the sick. But officials pointed out that CareFirst’s bid was just that: A bid. Rates were not final until the state’s insurance commissioner reviewed and approved them. Once that "rate review" process was done, officials said, the rates might come down.

They have. The commissioner, Therese Goldsmith, reduced proposed increases for six of the state’s nine carriers. CareFirst, for example, got only half of the increase it sought. As a result, it appears the rates in Maryland are among the very lowest that any state has published. From the official state report: