More than 8 million people have signed up for private insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act, several million more have gotten coverage through Medicaid, and polling from several independent organizations suggests that the number of Americans without insurance is falling by a substantial margin. In response, some Republicans are changing the focus of their arguments. Even if the law isn’t the total failure conservatives once imagined, they’re saying, it’s still very far short of a success.

Here, for example, is a recent tweet from the office of Kevin McCarthy, the House Majority Whip: “The President's health care law continues to fall short of covering the uninsured, but he still claims it's ‘working.’” The tweet included a link to an article, published in HispanicBusiness.com, focusing on the many millions of Americans who aren’t getting health insurance from the law—and won’t anytime soon.

As a description of the law’s impact—and criticism of its limited reach—this is a perfectly reasonable point. Notwithstanding the good news on enrollment, it remains to be seen whether the number of people without insurance will fall by as much as the official analysts have predicted. Even if it does, many more people will remain uninsured: According to the Congressional Budget Office, there will still be 31 million uninsured people by 2025, once the law has taken full effect. It would be even more (56 million) without the law, but that’s still a large population with no protection from medical bills. Nobody knows that better than the law’s supporters, many of whom continue to fight for more ambitious and generous efforts to help the un- (and under-) insured.

But to hear that criticism from the likes of McCarthy is a bit much. Remember, House Republicans have voted to repeal Obamacare 50 times. They have voted on serious Obamacare alternatives exactly zero times. They haven’t even made a serious attempt to get a bill out of committee, let alone hold a floor debate. A few Republican lawmakers have crafted proposals on their own, as have some conservative intellectuals. But GOP leaders have made it very clear they want nothing to do with these plans.

In addition, a major reason the Affordable Care Act isn’t reaching more people is that Republicans have done their best to limit the law’s reach—primarily, by blocking expansions of Medicaid in states where conservative Republicans hold sway. You’ve probably heard all about this by now, particularly if you read my colleague Alec MacGillis. If not, however, you can just read the very same article that McCarthy’s tweet highlights. It’s right there in the text: