There’s a reason that the Affordable Care Act was named such: it was purported to make health care more affordable for one and all. Cost and affordability was its entire raison d’être, and naysayers were either shouted down or called bold-faced liars.

But reality doesn’t much care about someone’s preferred talking points, and it was a foregone conclusion that costs for this legislative Golem-on-steroids were going to skyrocket far beyond the benign assurances of Obamacare’s most vocal proponents.

Tellingly, that hasn’t been just the opinion of various wild-eyed conservative pundits like yours truly, but also that of a living liberal saint in American political history:

And Woodward was right:

(via The Hill) – Health industry officials say ObamaCare-related premiums will double in some parts of the country, countering claims recently made by the administration.

The industry complaints come less than a week after Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sought to downplay concerns about rising premiums in the healthcare sector. She told lawmakers rates would increase in 2015 but grow more slowly than in the past.

“The increases are far less significant than what they were prior to the Affordable Care Act,” the secretary said in testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee. Her comment baffled insurance officials, who said it runs counter to the industry’s consensus about next year.

But hey, what could those evil insurance industry officials possibly know about insurance industry costs?

Certainly not nearly as much as Commissar Sebelius or Captain Competence himself, Barack “What time do we tee off?” Obama.

“It’s pretty shortsighted because I think everybody knows that the way the exchange has rolled out … is going to lead to higher costs,” said one senior insurance executive who requested anonymity.

The insurance official, who hails from a populous swing state, said his company expects to triple its rates next year on the ObamaCare exchange.

*sigh*

Keep in mind that the insurance industry’s predictions reflect what is already occurring in real time:

(via Daily Caller) – “…Health insurance premiums have risen more after Obamacare than the average premium increases over the eight years before it became law, according to the private health exchange eHealthInsurance.

The individual market for health insurance has seen premiums rise by 39 percent since February 2013, eHealth reports. Without a subsidy, the average individual premium is now $274 a month. Families have been hit even harder with an average increase of 56 percent over the same period — average premiums are now $663 per family, over $426 last year.

Between 2005 and 2013, average premiums for individual plans increased 37 percent and average family premiums were upped 31 percent. So they have risen faster under Obamacare than in the previous eight years…”

Again, this cannot be a shock to anyone, least of all the Administration itself. Especially when its own Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicted this exact result.

No matter. As it stands, the most likely eventual response by our esteemed leaders will inevitably be to simply use Obamacare’s cataclysmic failure to advocate for the necessity of a spankin’ new Single Payer system.

Oh, yeah. That’ll make things better…