President Obama told activists on a conference call that it was negative coverage of Obamacare premium spikes that has dampened the enthusiasm of the public to sign up for health insurance.

The president's own Department of Health and Human Services informed the public this week that Obamacare premiums were set to skyrocket 22% on average with some states seeing up to 116% increase.

Washington Examiner:

"We're not going to get that much help from the media," Obama told the more than 25,000 volunteers who joined a White House call with Obama Thursday afternoon. "This is going to be a ground game."

Obama said volunteers will have to help "clear the mud off the windshield" to get people to sign up.

"There is a faction of people who are continually trying to root for failure, despite the fact that we keep on insuring people and folks continue to get help," Obama said.

"The bottom line is, most people are going to be pleasantly surprised at how affordable their choices are… if they look for themselves, despite the headlines that don't always explain that premiums going up doesn't necessarily translate into" higher premiums for those who qualify for tax credits, he said.

The Obama administration was hit by news this week that average premiums for Obamacare plans brought on the federal exchanges will rise 25 percent in 2017. However, officials have noted that subsidies will help keep the plans affordable for most people.

Most people can find a plan "for less than $75 a month," Obama said on the call that was closed to media. Most people re-enrolling will see their premiums drop 20 percent, the president claimed.

Obama said there is "incredibly fierce political resistance against giving people health insurance, something I have never fully understood," Obama said about the political atmosphere leading up to the fourth open enrollment period. He said he doesn't understand people running for office on a platform of stopping people from getting coverage, and said he would help the effort by doing radio interviews and penning opinion editorials in favor of getting people signed up.

"We're not letting up," Obama pledged.

Note that the president is incredulous that anyone would not want to be coerced into buying high deductible health insurance plans with sub-par coverage and paying for coverages they don't need and don't want. 

What the president forgot to mention is that with those massive increases in premiums comes a massive increase in the amount of subsidies the government gives out. But what's a couple of hundred billion dollars added to the deficit when the government is already running nearly a half trillion dollar deficit as it is?

Next year, one in five Americans will have only one choice - or no choices - for insurance plans on the Obamacare exchange. Does the fact that the media is reporting this and the massive increases in premiums mean they oppose Obamacare? When the law was passed, there were no bigger cheerleaders for Obamacare than the press. The president didn't seem to mind back then that the media was overselling health insurance reform.

Now that they are reporting facts coming from his own administration, they are apparently to blame for Obamacare's coming collapse.