I know, I know. It's hard to pay attention to the exchange enrollment numbers right now. There are so many challenges to staying on top of this story:

• Especially when such a big political scandal breaks in the Northeast. Involving a potential presidential front-runner. Over traffic? We really have gotten soft if this is what passes for political payback these days. So we're obsessed with the Chicago political machine cuz it's the only one left? And, c'mon, raise your hand if you're honestly surprised a politician from Jersey turned out to be a douche. That's what I thought…
• And there are so many numbers. Coming from so many states. Sorting through them all is bad enough, but putting them in proper perspective is something else altogether. And forget about getting anything timely and/or reliable from the feds at this point. Open enrollment may close, but I have a feeling we'll get federal numbers sometime after Nov. 4…
• Oh, and we can't forget all of the regional stories distracting, whether it's legal marijuana, heart-breaking NFL teams or polar vortexes (How cool of a name is that? That should be an NFL team…)

But these distractions, big and small, are simply just that. So, how are things going? Well, glancing through the latest headlines, anyway, there's good news and bad news:

Well, obviously, the website glitches seem to have worked themselves out. And the carriers have been pretty proactive in accommodating reams of new customers by delaying both enrollment and payment deadlines – and, honestly, why wouldn't they be?

But, the outreach effort hasn't been as robust as anyone would like. Enroll America, the nonprofit tasked with getting as people many to sign up as possible, revealed a consumer shortfall they're already ramping up to address. Despite the vast majority of people wanting insurance, most of them still don't have clue.