(BigGovernment.news) We’ve said it before: Obamacare is the nightmare “gift” that keeps on giving.

If you thought your health insurance premiums and other out-of-pocket expenses were already through the roof, thanks to President Obama’s signature healthcare “reform” legislation, you haven’t seen anything yet. A newly released study has found that premiums around the country are set to spike an additional 27 percent, to the center-right policy institute the American Action Forum.

The Washington Free Beacon reports:

The Department of Health and Human Services announced last month that premiums would increase an average of 22 percent in 2017, with the health care law’s Silver plans rising to $296 per month. Premiums will increase as much as 145 percent in some states.

The American Action Forum found that the average increase is likely to be higher than predicted because the agency did not factor in that nearly half of Obamacare plans no longer exist, forcing enrollees to switch to costlier plans.

What’s driving the costs this time? A lack of competition, the report noted. So many insurers are getting out of state Obamacare exchanges because they are losing hundreds of millions of dollars; it appears as though all the younger, healthy people the administration was counting on to join the exchanges aren’t (because premiums are too high).

“In 2017, only 36 out of 498 rating areas will see an increase in competition while 366 rating areas lost at least one insurer,” the American Action Forum said. “Of the rating areas that lost insurers, 78 rating areas lost two or more and many regions in Illinois, Ohio, Texas, and Arizona, among others, saw five or more insurers exit their exchanges.”

“This mass exodus of insurers in many rating areas paints the picture of a marketplace that is increasingly hostile to private insurance,” the group said.

While Obama and big-government Democrats continue to live in denial about the damage their law has done to American health care, help may be on the way. President-elect Donald J. Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress have vowed to repeal and replace the disaster that is Obamacare as a top priority in the coming year.

More:

• America, We Have A YUUUUUGE Opportunity To Get Government Off Our Backs
• Obama Has To Lie About His Signature Healthcare Reform Law To Hide His Incompetence
• Democrats ‘Eat Crow’ Over Failing Obamacare – But Are They Now Willing To Help Repeal It?

(c) 2016 USA Features Media.