This just in: Obama lied to you. Again.

Seriously, who could be surprised about this anymore?

(via National Review Online) – President Obama is going back on another chief promise he made regarding Obamacare. In a recent interview, he said that people may have to change their doctors because of the health-care law.

In 2009, during debate about the Affordable Care Act, the president claimed that, along with being able to keep your current plans, “if you like the doctor you have, you can keep your doctor, too.”

But in a WebMD interview that aired on Friday, President Obama reneged on that assurance. “For the average person, many folks who don’t have health insurance initially, they’re going to have to make some choices and they might end up having to switch doctors, in part because they’re saving money,” he said.

Video of the exchange is below:

Yes, I suppose it’s news that the World’s Most Dishonest Insurance Salesman admitted that he fibbed to his captive clientele for the umpteenth time. But that’s just the beginning, really.

First of all, remember this was promised to SAVE US MONEY. It was selling point number 1, 2, & 3. Nowhere in that repeated ad nauseam vow did he ever say “…uhhh, one more thing: you might have to switch your doctor in order to save money. Just thought you should know…“

As any regular reader here knows, I sold for and managed professional insurance sales teams for the better part of two decades. Conducting business the way our president has done would easily be sufficient cause to lose one’s insurance license, permanently. Bait-&-switch tactics are frowned upon in any sales situation, but the insurance industry is incredibly regulated and this is simply not allowed to occur without dire consequence to the offending individual.

Unless, I guess, you happen to occupy the Oval Office. Go figure.

Sure, he promised other stuff, too, such as it’d provide coverage for the uninsured, and would protect everyone from having their coverage cancelled, etc.,… But since most folks already had insurance, the biggie promise was cost.

As in: your health insurance. Would. Cost. Less.

Which has been proven repeatedly to not be the case. And in many of the cases where lower costs ARE being realized, all that’s happening is deductibles are being raised to offset the higher premiums:

(via Bloomberg) – “…Four of five U.S. companies have raised deductibles or are considering doing so as health costs increase, according to a survey of more than 700 employers.

About one-third of the companies have already increased deductibles or other cost-sharing provisions like copays, and 48 percent are considering similar moves, the survey by New York-based consulting firm Mercer LLC found…”

Newsflash to Barack and his Media Apologists: raising deductibles was ALREADY available as an option before you foisted this legislative plague on us, guys. Far from making coverage “magically” cheaper, all this does is shift more of the risk and cost to the insured.

Which is pretty much the exact inverse of what our Salesman Of The Year was hawking from the get-go.

Insurance isn’t all that complicated, and a good agent spends most of their time helping each client tailor a plan best suited for that client’s unique needs. Henry Ford’s famous quote in 1909, “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants, so long as it’s black…” is anathema to the buying habits of today’s consumer.

People in the United States want and expect more choice, not less. And yet the president, despite his many assurances to the contrary, has forced fewer choices to be available. At higher costs. For worse coverage.

Funny, I don’t recall that being the sales pitch.