One unpleasant surprise in the grotesquely misnamed “Affordable” Care Act is how much more costly the insurance is.

The next unpleasant surprise is how narrow the choices are. As even so Obama-friendly a newpaper as the New York Times is now admitting, “No matter what kind of health plan consumers choose, they will find fewer doctors and hospitals in their network — or pay much more for the privilege of going to any provider they want.”

Insurers are doing this to control costs. Plans sold on the exchanges are barred from charging customers fairly but instead must overcharge many to subsidize those with existing expensive health conditions. Insurers are doing this by narrowing options. Because getting to pick a doctor you like is, under Obamacare, apparently just a bad habit:

“ ‘We have to break people away from the choice habit that everyone has,’ said Marcus Merz, the chief executive of PreferredOne, an insurer in Golden Valley, Minn., that is owned by two health systems and a physician group. ‘We’re all trying to break away from this fixation on open access and broad networks.’ ”

Supposedly, you won’t mind:

“Although a similar attempt to restrict choice failed in the early ‘90s, after opposition to H.M.O.s and managed care, insurers insist these efforts will not run into the same resistance because they are now working more closely with providers, and customers are more concerned about costs. ‘It’s a new era,’ said Dr. Sam Ho, the chief medical officer for United Healthcare.”

The new era features mandates that raise costs pointlessly, that shift costs politically, and that regulate unpredictably. And now, you don’t get to keep the doctor you like, either. It all moves health care the wrong direction – away from, rather than toward a free-market system that gives power and choice to patients.