COVERED CA: ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER TEN PERCENT PAIN!

Well, folks, hold onto your wallets and your dwindling sense of fiscal sanity, because Covered California is back with its annual ritual: announcing another double-digit premium hike for 2027. The Santa Barbara Independent, bless their hearts, ran a story breathlessly forwarding the latest from 'Health Access California,' which sounds suspiciously like a lobbying group cheering on their own gravy train. A 9.9% average jump! One almost wonders if they’re playing a game of 'How Close Can We Get To 10% Without Invoking The Wrath Of The Plebes?'

This isn't just about 'rates adjusting to market forces,' as the bureaucrats love to drone. This is about a state-run system that's been shoveling taxpayer dollars into the maw of a bottomless pit, all while patting themselves on the back for 'expanding access.' Access, apparently, to ever-higher bills. It's a miracle they haven't started charging extra for the privilege of paying your premiums.

The truth no one at the 'Independent' dare print? This isn't just an organic increase; it's the predictable outcome of a political class too enamored with government solutions and too cozy with the very companies benefiting from these mandates. Every new 'benefit' and every new regulation gets baked into soaring costs, leaving Californians with less disposable income and more 'access' to sticker shock. Perhaps next year they'll announce a single-digit hike just to confuse us.

What the mainstream media classifies as a benign 'rate adjustment,' astute taxpayers recognize as another turn of the screws. While the state brass celebrates their 'achievements,' families across California are calculating whether they can afford to get sick, let alone pay for the 'privilege' of state-mandated coverage. It’s not just a premium increase; it’s a tax on existence, courtesy of Sacramento.