I know that this isn’t a new line for them or anything, but their continued insistence on deceiving the (largely unemployed!) youth coalition with promises of free stuff is just as morally- and fiscally-bankrupting as it ever was. From HHS’s health care blog:

To the Class of 2013: Congratulations on a well-earned graduation. I know how much hard work it took to get here today. This is a time when you’re making big decisions about the future. You might be embarking on a new career, transitioning to a different city, and thinking about the start of this next exciting stage in life. I’m sure the last thing you’re thinking about is health insurance. But unfortunately, the unexpected can happen. The good news is that now the Affordable Care Act provides protections and benefits that give you greater control of your health care. The law helps you by: -Making it possible to stay on your parent’s health plan until you turn 26, giving you the flexibility to make choices about your future without worrying about where you’re going to get health insurance. -Requiring most insurance plans to cover proven preventive services—like birth control and certain cancer screenings—without you paying a penny. -Barring insurers, beginning in 2014, from denying you coverage because of a pre-existing condition, like cancer, asthma, or acne, or making you pay more just because you are a woman. -Creating an online Health Insurance Marketplace, where you can find coverage that meets your needs and budget. You can also find out if you qualify for financial assistance. Sign up now at HealthCare.gov for updates; enrollment begins October 1, 2013. Bottom line: Because of the Affordable Care Act, you’ll be able to begin this next chapter of your life with the peace of mind and security health insurance provides. Congratulations on your achievement!

Uhm… ‘congratulations on your achievements’? Gee, that would be a nice sentiment, except that pretty much everything you just said is a blatant attempt to infantilize college graduates and young people and inform them of how very dearly they need the federal government’s magnanimosity to even have a chance of getting by. It doesn’t exactly scream “you’re a real, self-reliant adult now,” does it?

Sure, it all sounds like a pretty innocuous helping hand, but upon closer inspection, here is what is really going on with ObamaCare, 2013 graduates: It specifically and intentionally relies on the young and healthy paying heftily into the health care system without needing to use the same proportion of the available benefits; in other words, young people are going to be the crucial pawn that balances out the now costlier risk pool and forces them to pay the price for doing so.

Let’s just get real here: This oh-so-munificent message from the feds is not nearly as much about providing a service for young people as it is begging young people to sign the heck up and buy health insurance through the forthcoming exchanges, because the Obama administration is perfectly well aware that the system cannot and will not work without their participation. This is all that blog post was really trying to say: “Dear 2013 graduates, Pretty please sign up for the proffered insurance because without your subsidization, this scheme is going to turn into a hot mess.” Fixed it for you, HHS.

Walter Russell Mead and company at the American Interest have been hammering this point home for ages now:

But here’s the real kicker: premiums for young men ages 25-36 could increase by more than 50 percent, and females 25-29 will face a 4 percent increase. In other words, if you’re young, you lose. If you’re a man, you lose. If you’re a young man, you really lose. Recent news about Obamacare premium costs has tended to focus on whether the premiums will go up or down on average. What this data shows is that these broader national or state averages hide scarier changes in the group-by-group breakdowns. Young people are already the hardest hit by the recession and by the plethora of other entitlement programs that subsidize the boomers. Young men, in particular, are especially hurt by some of the country’s current economic shifts. Passing a law that forces them to shoulder an even greater economic burden and then spending tons of money to convince them to sign up for this raw deal is both cruel and irresponsible.

And Nick Gillespie at Reason nailed it earlier this year:

But if the proprietor of the most open and transparent and clean-smelling administration of all time wants to make some real news, he might speak honestly to the segment of the American electorate that he is screwing over six ways to Sunday: Young voters between the ages of 18 and 29. Listen up, kids! Your parents are robbing your futures blind and you’re chumps enough not only to go along but to say – like the adorable title orphan in the classic baby boomer musical Oliver! – please, sir, I want some more. From virtually every possible angle, Obama is helping to diminish the prospects for today’s younger generation. First and foremost, his response to the Great Recession – stimulus and the massive piling up of debt – is slowing the recovery.

In a nutshell, between ObamaCare and all of these other expanding entitlement programs and our ever-growing national debt (count it!), the older generations are continuing to borrow against the prosperity that younger people haven’t even earned yet, and cutting into that prosperity’s potential while they’re at it. This is one messed-up vicious cycle that the Obama administration is perpetuating here, and make no mistake: They are counting on the allure of seemingly “free” government benevolence to keep the charade going. Don’t go for it, graduates.