While the focus on the ObamaCare rollout has mainly been on its incompetent web design and operation, that’s far from the only problem — or even the most important. Pennsylvania’s WFMZ profiles a family that saw its monthly premiums skyrocket for 2014, forcing them to choose between getting the mandated health insurance or feeding their family (via Daniel Halper at TWS):

“I feel it’s important for people to understand that the premiums aren’t affordable,” says Jennifer Most, a mother, who “told the crowd she went to the government website with all intentions of signing up … Jennifer and her husband are disabled, on a fixed income, and their five year old has a few medical problems as well,” the reporter explains. The woman says, “My premium for health insurance was $947.63.” “That is a over 765 dollars more than she currently pays,” says the reporter. “It would take food out of our mouths to be able to afford these coverages,” the mother explains.

Don’t forget the little bait-and-switch pulled by HHS last month, when they finally rolled out the prices on the exchanges. They claimed that the premiums came in “lower than expected,” but Forbes’ Avik Roy dismantled the dishonesty behind that claim:

“Premiums nationwide will also be around 16 percent lower than originally expected,” HHS cheerfully announces in its press release. But that’s a ruse. HHS compared what the Congressional Budget Office projected rates might look like—in 2016—to its own findings. Neither of those numbers tells you the stat that really matters: how much rates will go up next year, under Obamacare, relative to this year, prior to the law taking effect. … Based on a Manhattan Institute analysis of the HHS numbers, Obamacare will increase underlying insurance rates for younger men by an average of 97 to 99 percent, and for younger women by an average of 55 to 62 percent. Worst off is North Carolina, which will see individual-market rates triple for women, and quadruple for men.

The collapse of the ObamaCare exchanges is just the start of HHS problems in ObamaCare. When the websites actually begin to work, a lot of people will be shocked at the skyrocketing costs and out-of-pocket expenses for health insurance in the new paradigm of the ACA. And that will have a huge impact on politics next year as more and more families have to make choices between paying premiums, fines, or grocery bills.