Promise Meets Expiration Date

2008-era Obama fantasy:

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— “Flashback: Obama pledged to reduce health insurance premiums by $2,500 per family per year,” as spotted by Twitchy today.

2013-fiscal reality:

Last week, the state of California claimed that its version of Obamacare’s health insurance exchange would actually reduce premiums. “These rates are way below the worst-case gloom-and-doom scenarios we have heard,” boasted Peter Lee, executive director of the California exchange. But the data that Lee released tells a different story: Obamacare, in fact, will increase individual-market premiums in California by as much as 146 percent.

One of the most serious flaws with Obamacare is that its blizzard of regulations and mandates drives up the cost of insurance for people who buy it on their own.

This problem will be especially acute when the law’s main provisions kick in on January 1, 2014, leading many to worry about health insurance “rate shock.”

— “Rate Shock: In California, Obamacare To Increase Individual Health Insurance Premiums By 64-146%,” Avik Roy wrote at Forbes this past Thursday.

As Jim Geraghty likes to say, all of Obama’s campaign promises come with expiration dates; the result of this one is that “ObamaCare’s Going to Give It to California Good and Hard,” Bryan Preston writes at the Tatler. “Raise your hand if you’re surprised. Yeah, me either.”

Mencken certainly wouldn’t be.