A Modest Proposal for E.J. Dionne
E.J. Dionne’s Thursday column for the Washington Post, which expounds on the supposed virtues of Obamacare, asks conservatives to return any medical loss rebate checks they received to support the principle that the federal government has no business interfering in insurers’ affairs. This conservative’s answer to Mr. Dionne is simple: I’d be happy to return my rebate check – right after you tell me where I can find the $2,500 cut in premiums Barack Obama promised.
Four years ago, candidate Obama repeatedly promised that he would cut premiums – not slow the rate of growth, but CUT them in absolute terms – by $2,500 per family. Jason Furman – then a campaign advisor, and now a senior Administration official – went even further, telling the New York Times that “we think we could get to $2,500 in savings by the end of the first term, or be very close to it.”
Last week we released a report quantifying the cost of President Obama’s broken promise to reduce premiums, which found that the cumulative cost (through 2012) of Obama’s broken promise on premiums is $805 billion. During the past four years, the average family has spent $12,230 more on private health insurance than candidate Obama promised, while the average individual has spent $4,163 more. The below chart demonstrates how $1.3 billion in rebates for both 2011 and 2012 will be dwarfed by the more than $800 billion cost of Obama’s broken premium promise.
So, to end as I started, I’d be happy to return my Obamacare rebate check – right after Mr. Dionne either a) tells me when I can expect to receive the $2,500 premium cut I was promised four years ago; or b) writes a column pointing out that this campaign pledge was a ridiculous promise that President Obama already broke – likely because he never had any intention of keeping it in the first place.
