Last week the Dayton administration released 2016 health insurance rates for folks in the individual market, including those using MNsure, Minnesota’s version of Obamacare. It has become one of the most highly anticipated press conferences of the year at the Capitol, with lots of TV cameras and the entire political press corps in attendance.

Like Clarence Beeks announcing the orange crop report in the classic movie Trading Places, a hush fell over the room when Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman walked to the podium to make his announcement.

In 2013 he announced, “We have the lowest insurance rates in the county!”

In 2014 he announced, “Our insurance rates only went up 4.5%!”

This year, he announced, “Our insurance rates are going up between 14% and 49%.”

As reported on WCCO TV last night, those increases are the largest in the country, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, which keeps track of such things. An expert in the WCCO story said he wasn’t surprised by the huge increases because we started with the “lowest insurance rates in the country.” He also said it was an example of “capitalism.”

Since when did capitalism involve the government dictating products, markets and prices to private businesses?

Could it be the Dayton administration forced insurance companies to offer low insurance rates in 2014 in order to support the narrative that MNsure was a success days before they stood for reelection? You’d have to be pretty cynical to believe anyone would manipulate the market and put so many people on a roller coaster of coverage and pricing just to win an election…