Obama Says for Average Families, ObamaCare Equivalent to ‘$1,800 Tax Cut’

"Even if you have the right education, for decades, one thing that made it harder for families to make ends meet and businesses to grow was the high cost of health care.  And so the third cornerstone had to be health care reform. In the decade before the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. ObamaCare -- (Laughter and Applause)

In the decade before the Affordable Care Act double-digit premium increases were common.  CEOs called them one of the biggest challenges to their competitiveness. And if your employer didn’t drop your coverage to avoid these costs, they might pass them on you and take them out of your wages.

Today, we’ve seen a dramatic slowdown in the rising cost of health care.  When we passed the Affordable Care act, the critics were saying, "What are you doing about the costs?' Well, let me tell you what we have done about the costs. If your family gets your health care through your employer, premiums are rising at a rate tied for the lowest on the record.  What this means for the economy is staggering.  

If we hadn’t taken this on, and premiums had kept growing at the rate they did in the last decade, the average premium for family coverage today would be $1,800 higher than they are. Now, most people don't notice it, but that’s $1,800 you don’t have to pay out of our pocket or see vanish from your paycheck.

That’s like a $1,800 tax cut. That's not for folks who signed up for ObamaCare, that's the consequences of some of the reforms that we made. And because the insurance marketplaces we created encourage insurers to compete for your business, in many cities they have announced that the next year’s premiums -- well, something important is happening here, next year's premiums are actually falling in some of these markets.  One expert said it’s like defying the law of physics. But we’re getting it done."