[Happy Monkey]

They are citing the failure to reach expectations as an example of the law not working, and exaggerating the amount it fell short to exaggerate how much it failed to work.

This number isn't the number of people getting subsidies; it's the number who enrolled in private insurance using the Federal and state exchanges. Not all of them got subsidies, and many who would have needed subsidies were put in Medicare instead. So, on a more "conservative vs liberal" axis, they would have wanted a low number for "Medicare enrollees and subsidized private enrollees". This was on an "Republicans vs Obamacare" axis - they want few people to sign up so they can call the law a failure and have a bunch of people who have to pay the penalty for not signing up, who can be used in ads a year from now (when the penalty is due).