Where’s the $2,500 Savings Obama Promised?

Robert Book / July 24, 2009

Throughout his campaign, then-candidate Obama repeatedly made two promises about health care reform: that if you like your current health plan, you could keep it—and that it would cost about $2,500 per year less. Obama made this pledge on his campaign web site, in the second presidential debate, and in the third debate, :

If you have health insurance, then you don’t have to do anything. If you’ve got health insurance through your employer, you can keep your health insurance, keep your choice of doctor, keep your plan. … And we estimate we can cut the average family’s premium by about $2,500 per year.

One continuing theme in the current health care debate has been over whether you will actually be able to keep your plan if any of the current bills in the House or Senate pass.

But what about the $2,500 in savings?

There is nothing in any of the current health care reform proposals that would produce anything like that savings, or even any savings at all. In fact, we’re finding just the opposite. (more…)