When somebody puts a piece of data into a post without a supporting link, I usually just check it out on my own. For example, I found a lot of stuff on your unsupported "$700 billion" number, and posted the results.

It took me all of thirty seconds to find links on the Democrats and premium increases. This article contains the primary link, and many more you should check out.

Maybe you forgot that using mandates and regulations to force private insurance to become intolerable was the reason for Obamacare. The equivalent of commanding all automobile companies to sell cars with every available option for the same price as a car with no options at all. Look at the four links in the last sentence of the column I linked to.

Unfortunately, the "public option" that it was planned for people to be forced into never materialized. So we get the dog's breakfast we have now.

Your beloved Democratic Party hates the private sector, Buck. In health care, energy, transportation, you name it. Their objective is to destroy it and replace it with some government chimera that has the facade of "private" but is controlled at every level not just by government in general, but by the Federal government. Notice how the legislation discussed in the NYT article neutralized the state regulation process. That's intentional.