EDITORIAL: Remain calm, all is well

Like Kevin Bacon’s character during the chaotic finale to “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” President Barack Obama continues to insist that “all is well” with his wheezing signature achievement, Obamacare.

News that premiums are skyrocketing on the exchanges and that health insurers are pulling out of many states is no cause for alarm, he assures Americans.

“Premiums going up don’t necessarily translate into higher premiums for the people who are getting tax credits,” Mr. Obama said last month. “Most people are going to be pleasantly surprised at just how affordable their options are.”

Liberals loved to characterize Ronald Reagan’s domestic policies as “voodoo economics,” an epithet first used by George H.W. Bush in 1980. So what in the world would they call the Obama model, under which consumers need not fret over rising costs because somebody else will pay for it?

No less than The New York Times — no foe of the president or socialized medicine — offered a sort of economics primer on the folly of Mr. Obama’s pronouncements.

Left unmentioned in the president’s defense of Obamacare, the paper reported last week, “are what economists and health-policy experts describe as possible reasons to be concerned about rising premiums.” Foremost, the increased subsidies “mean higher cost for taxpayers.”

Indeed, that’s the dirty little secret about these “subsidies.” They’re not free. The government estimates it will now spend $43 billion on such assistance during the current fiscal year. Americans of all income levels will eventually be tapped to cover the higher costs.

In addition, the Times notes, millions of people buying insurance outside the exchanges aren’t eligible for such taxpayer largess and will be forced to eat rate hikes of up to 50 percent in some places.

Finally, soaring costs don’t just happen in a vacuum. They reflect the realities and health of the marketplace. “Premium increases indicate the magnitude of the cost increases for insurers,” the Times reports, which explains why many insurers are fleeing.

The story didn’t even get into the economic ramifications of a law that essentially forced insurers to abandon their traditional actuarial tables and pricing mechanisms.

Hillary Clinton promises to be the third term of the Obama administration and likely wouldn’t touch Obamacare. So if you’re not a big fan of a failing health-care law — rammed through Congress on a party-line vote amid a flurry of lies and deception — that now saddles consumers with billions in higher costs, the choice on Tuesday is clear.