White House Admits Obamacare Raised Insurance Premiums

Via Ramesh Ponnuru's twitter feed, comes this ABC News article where the White House finally admits that Obamacare raised the cost insurance premiums:

So what about that $2,500 in [insurance] savings the president pledged? White House deputy chief of staff Nancy-Ann DeParle insists families will see that savings — by 2019.

“Many of the changes in the Affordable Care Act are starting this year, and in succeeding years,” DeParle told ABC News, “and by 2019 we estimate that the average family will save around $2,000.”

DeParle said that the “big increases that occurred last year were probably driven by insurance plans overestimating what the impact would be and maybe trying to take some profits upfront before some of the changes in the Affordable Care Act occur.

This is remarkable. One, the White House is saying that they know more about the costs of implementing Obamacare than the collective decisions of the entire insurance market. (DeParle's statement also conflicts with the findings of the government's own analysts.)  And two, the White House really moved the goal posts on the president's promised insurance savings. Obama promised many, many times to "cut the cost of a typical family's premium by up to $2,500 a year."

Now the White House is saying that they'll lower premiums by only $2,000 a year, and that won't happen until 2019 -- three years after the president's supposed second term comes to an end?