The advantage of having a flawed law ...

[Kablooie]

The health insurance law is undeniably flawed.
Many argue that since it's flawed we shouldn't have passed it.

I disagree.

If you have no law, all the ramifications of a proposed law are speculation. Some will point to the good things it will do, others the bad things, but no one really knows for sure. That's why it's so hard to pass a new law. All aspects of it are just educated guesses so can be argued down relatively easily. There is no hard data to support arguments.

Once you have an operating law, the ramifications become real. You can see the actual effect and argue with authority about the positive and negative aspects. It's not just speculation anymore.

This is why it's better to have even a flawed law on the books. The deficiencies become apparent and you can make authoritative arguments based on data to make changes.

It still won't be easy to pass changes like alternative options for insurance but it will be much easier than if there were no law at all.