President Obama is boasting that his new health law provides "free"  preventive care, such as mammograms and colonoscopies. But when you open your  mail, you'll find out that's untrue; all he's doing is making you pay for it in  advance.

  The government isn't going to force you to get a colonoscopy, but being  forced to pay for one feels almost the same.

  Millions of Americans are getting notices that their premiums are going up  to pay for changes required under the ObamaCare law. Section 2713 of the law  requires that those premiums include the full cost for such preventive services  as Pap smears, mammograms and smoking-cessation programs. Obama's "free" really  just means you won't have a co-pay if you decide to get that service. But it's  not free -- merely prepaid. When a restaurant charges you $25 for the  all-you-can-eat buffet, it can't claim dessert is "free."

  Another reason premiums are soaring this fall is the rapid rise in Medicaid  enrollment, now up to a record 50 million people nationwide. When Medicaid rolls  expand, it's a double whammy for the rest of us; our taxes go up and so do our  premiums.

  Medicaid pays, on average, 86 cents for every dollar of care provided.  Doctors and hospitals are shortchanged. They try to make up the difference by  charging privately insured patients more. The average household paid almost  $1,800 a year in added premiums to offset Medicaid costs before the recession  began. Now, with Medicaid rolls up, that hidden tax increases your premium even  more.

  Get set for larger premium hikes in 2014. That's when most ObamaCare  provisions go into effect.

  Before Congress passed the health law, the Congressional Budget Office  warned that individual and small-group health premiums would be 10 percent to 13  percent higher under ObamaCare. In other words, Congress members who voted for  this law knew it would raise your insurance costs.

  A major reason is the one-size-fits-all benefit package, which you'll have  to have whether you want it and can afford it or not. It will include things  many consumers haven't had to buy in the past, such as addiction treatment for  heroin addicts (Sec. 1302).

  Another reason is the expansion of Medicaid. Obama said he'd solve the  problem of the uninsured by making insurance more affordable, but 60 percent of  all those who will gain coverage in 2014 are being put on Medicaid -- which,  again, will increase the hidden tax in your premium.

  By 2019, 82 million people will be on Medicaid or S-CHIP, the public  children's program -- that's more than 28 percent of all Americans under 65.

  Obama pledged to "bend the cost curve" on health insurance. But he's  bending the truth instead. When you open your mail, you can thank ObamaCare for  the premium hike.

Betsy McCaughey, a former New York lieu tenant governor, is author of  "The Obama Health Law: What It Says and How to Over turn It."  betsy@hospitalinfection.org