Happy days are here again

Altogether shout it now 
There's no one who can doubt it now 
So let's tell the world about it now 
Happy days are here again

John Hayward, on the problem that doesn't exist:

The horror stories keep piling up, faster than Democrats can scream they’re all a bunch of liars.  A Nevada man lamed Larry Basich fought his way into the bug storm on ObamaCare launch day, kept plugging away at the garbage ObamaCare computer systems until November, finally managed to buy a plan and pay his first premium, then suffered a heart attack, requiring triple bypass surgery… at which point he discovered the “confused” state ObamaCare exchange never actually assigned him to an insurance provider.

Four months later, Basich is sitting on $407,000 in unpaid hospital bills.  He “blames his back-and-forth with the exchange in December at least in part for the stress that caused his heart attack,” according to the Las Vegas Review Journal.  Everyone involved in the system claims they’re working super-hard to get his bills taken care of, but thus far most of that work has involved the exchange contractor and two different insurance providers pointing fingers of blame at each other.  The contractor actually took a stab at blaming Mr. Basich for the whole mess because, like many other Americans who made honest and persistent efforts to use the disastrous computer systems ObamaCare foisted on us, he ended up generating multiple online applications.

And of course, Basich’s senator is the sinister Harry Reid, famous for loudly declaring that all ObamaCare horror stories are untrue.  Reid hasn’t been much help, although his staff made a big production of calling Basich every day to work on a problem their boss claimed was pure fantasy from the floor of the Senate.  Punchline: Basich’s insurance broker estimates at least 20 other customers have problems of similar magnitude, while only about 5 percent of Nevada Health Link enrollments went through problem-free.

Your cares and troubles are gone 
They're be no more from now on 
Happy days are here again, 
The skies above are clear again

And yes, the storm clouds are gathering:

Perhaps most important, insurers have been disappointed that young people only make up about one-quarter of the enrollees in plans through the insurance exchanges, according to public figures that were released earlier this year. That ratio might change in the weeks ahead because the administration anticipates many more people in their 20s and 30s will sign up close to the March 31 enrollment deadline. Many insurers, however, don’t share that optimism.

These factors will have the unintended consequence of raising rates, sources said.

“We’re exasperated,” said the senior insurance official. “All of these major delays on very significant portions of the law are going to change what it’s going to cost.”

“My gut tells me that, for some people, these increases will be significant,” said Bill Hoagland, a former executive at Cigna and current senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center. 

 How much?

In Iowa, which hosts the first presidential caucus in the nation and has a competitive Senate race this year, rates are expected to rise 100 percent on the exchange and by double digits on the larger, employer-based market, according to a recent article in the Business Record.

Wondering why Tom Harkin is getting out of Dodge? Now you know.