Democrats have dreamed of single-payer health care for the better part of the last century. No matter how many times voters have rejected the idea, Democrat supermajorities in Congress forced ObamaCare down the nation’s throat in 2010. Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and crew told countless lies in the process, backed up by bogus Leftmedia “fact checks.” Passing ObamaCare cost Democrats their congressional majorities, but they successfully set up a system designed to fail … so they could come running to the rescue some day with a single-payer “fix.” Obama just promised last week to “fix” the “starter home” of ObamaCare with, among other things, a “public option” — the precursor to single-payer.

Cue this week’s news that the “Affordable” Care Act’s benchmark insurance plans will see a 25% hike in premiums for 2017. That hike is for “silver” plans, which understates the problem. There are also going to be insurers nationwide with huge increases. The Wall Street Journal notes but a few: “Our condolences for … young people in Arizona, where their premiums will climb by 116%. Likewise for Oklahoma (69%), Tennessee (63%) and Minnesota (59%).” But not to worry; there will be lavish taxpayer subsidies for millions of consumers. Meanwhile, the Obama administration also extended the deadline for enrollment, this time for the hundreds of thousands of people dumped from their plans thanks to those skyrocketing costs.

The timing of Friday’s speech about affordability and fixes just before Monday’s premium-hike announcement would be humorous if it weren’t so serious for American families trying to make ends meet. Among the many deceitful things Obama has said, however, there is one declaration that’s absolutely true. “I will not be on the ballot, but everything we’ve done is going to be on the ballot,” he told voters last week. Hillary Clinton will be on the ballot, and voters shouldn’t forget that she’s the godmother of ObamaCare — it’s basically HillaryCare warmed over.