Well .. People who are being honest, and aren't complete idiots, will be able to tell success stories.
People who have rates that tripled were the ones with such shit plans that insurance wouldn't cover anything.
I was in a car accident before the ACA took effect. I had "good" insurance through my employer. My insurance wouldn't cover the surgery necessary to do pesky things like to let me walk normally again. Most of my prescriptions weren't covered, and those that were, were about 10% less than the cash price.
Then they laid me off. A good part of that was that I was no longer pleasant at work (I was, and am, in a lot of pain). Another part was, my walking speed dropped to about 0.3mph at best. Ya, I bothered to measure it.
Because I was laid off, I couldn't afford $1,200/mo that COBRA offered (the cost of that plan, without the employer paying anything).
When open enrollment started, I enrolled. I was still unemployed, with no income. I was having a hard time finding a job, since it was difficult to walk or drive far. They put me in the Medicaid plan. Communication from Medicaid was non-existent, and the site only said that they would contact me.
I finally got a job, with some people I had worked with before, and now had an income. I went back to the site, and modified my application with my new income numbers. I spent several hours going through the plans, and picked one that was a bit expensive, but covered just about everything. This new plan that covers fuck-all everything, and has a relatively small yearly out of pocket max, cost about $400. That's only a little more than what I was paying for my employer provided insurance. It did take about a week for the insurance company to contact me for my initial payment, and another week for me to get my card. I guess I could complain about that, but considering we're dealing with both the government *and* insurance companies, a couple weeks turnaround from no insurance to having the card in my hand, is pretty damned good.
About the time I got the insurance card I paid for, I got a letter and card from Medicaid. I called them and told them to cancel me, since I no longer needed the free insurance.
I called the doctor, and made another appointment with them. They checked everything out, and surgery is covered. Surgery is scheduled for a few weeks from now.
While I was there, he refilled my pain meds. When I went to the pharmacy, they came up as $100. I hadn't given them the new insurance cards yet, so they redid it. $4/ea.
This last month has been great. I'm getting surgery that I couldn't have with my pre-ACA insurance. My insurance bill is 1/3 of what it was. My meds are effectively free. After I recover from surgery, I'll (hopefully) be pain free. The accident wasn't "bad", but it messed up my back pretty badly. It *might* take 6 surgeries or so. If they all happen within the year, my max out of pocket will be about $4,500. Considering each surgery will cost tens of thousands of dollars, I'm very very pleased.
My only complaint would be that the whole medical industry is still raping us. Medical costs in the US far exceed what they are in other countries. There's no reason an IV bag of saline solution should cost over $1,000, when it takes less than a minute to set up, and the supplies cost less than $5 to manufacture.
Being transported from the accident I mentioned to the hospital cost almost $1,000. It was less than a mile, and all they did was put on a cervical collar, tied me to the backboard, and drove me there. I won't even go into the other insane expenses I've incurred from then until now.