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Donald Trump Serves Up Piping Hot Nonsense On Obamacare

Donald Trump Serves Up Piping Hot Nonsense On Obamacare
TAMPA, FL - OCTOBER 24: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre on October 24, 2016 in Tampa, Florida. There are 14 days until the the presidential election. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Joe Raedle via Getty Images
TAMPA, FL - OCTOBER 24: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre on October 24, 2016 in Tampa, Florida. There are 14 days until the the presidential election. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON ― You would think that Obamacare had enough real problems that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump would be able to stick to discussing them when taking a swing at the health care law. But you'd be wrong.

During a campaign event promotion for his hotels at the Trump National Doral Miami resort Tuesday, the GOP nominee seized on the news that health insurance premiums on the Affordable Care Act's exchange marketplaces are going up by a lot for some people next year.

But naturally, instead of just using this information to criticize the law and propose something better (or "something terrific," as he's fond of saying), Trump opted to go a little nuts.

Politico reporter Eli Stokols was on the scene in Florida. (Read his dispatch here.) Let's start with this:

Like with seemingly everything else, Trump appears incapable of just accepting the facts.

Here they are: The Department of Health and Human Services announced Monday that the premiums for "benchmark" plans on the exchanges ― those used to set the size of subsidies that most exchange customers receive ― would rise an average of 25 percent next year in the 39 states that use the federal exchange system on HealthCare.gov.

That's a lot! And while that average obscures even higher average increases in some states ― including those on the order of what Trump claims here ― that doesn't make 25 percent "phony." It's how averages work.

And let's recall that Trump has claimed more than once that President Barack Obama would somehow hide these numbers and postpone the three-month insurance enrollment period that begins Nov. 1 to help Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton win.