The Democrats, with some help from the liberal media, are trying to spin the CBO report on premium costs as “good news.” Depends on on the meaning of  “good.” The Wall Street Journal‘s editors help deconstruct the spin:

CBO says it expects employer-sponsored insurance costs to remain roughly in line with the status quo, yet even this is a failure by Mr. Baucus’s and the White House’s own standards. Meanwhile, fixing the individual market—which is expensive and unstable largely because it does not enjoy the favorable tax treatment given to job-based coverage—was supposed to be the whole purpose of “reform.”

Instead, CBO is confirming that new coverage mandates will drive premiums higher. But Democrats are declaring victory, claiming that these higher insurance prices don’t count because they will be offset by new government subsidies. About 57% of the people who buy insurance through the bill’s new “exchanges” that will supplant today’s individual market will qualify for subsidies that cover about two-thirds of the total premium.

So the bill will increase costs but it will then disguise those costs by transferring them to taxpayers from individuals.

To be clear: the cost of insurance premiums will be going up, in large part because government will insist that insurers cover many items they otherwise wouldn’t. But many won’t pay the true cost, because other taxpayers will. This health-care plan is many things, but we should all agree at this point that it is doing nothing to lower costs and much to transfer the wealth.