“It is one of the most audacious promises in a campaign that has been thick with them. In speech after speech, Senator Barack Obama has vowed that he will lower the country’s healthcare costs enough to ‘bring down premiums by $2,500 for the typical family.’ Moreover, Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has promised that his health plan will be in place ‘by the end of my first term as president of the United States.’ Whether Mr. Obama can deliver is a matter of considerable dispute among health analysts and economists. While there is consensus that the American health care system is bloated with waste, eliminating enough to save $2,500 per family would require simultaneous and synergistic solutions to a host of problems that have proved intractable for decades.” (07/23/08)