United States Democratic presumptive presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama makes a statement after signing a guest book at the end of a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, which commemorates the six million Jewish Holocaust victims killed by the Nazis during World War II on July 23, 2008 in Jerusalem, Israel. (UPI Photo/Daniel Berehulak/Pool)

WASHINGTON, July 23 (UPI) -- Healthcare analysts say they're doubtful U.S. presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., can deliver on a promise to cut premiums by $2,500 per year.

Obama has pledged to use a combination of strategies to reduce a typical family's health insurance premiums by $2,500 by the end of his first term in office but industry observers and economists say those kinds of savings will take much longer to achieve, The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported Wednesday.

Assuming the U.S. Congress could summon the political courage to make the necessary changes, some doubt whether such big savings would materialize even after a decade, the newspaper said.

Jonathan Oberlander, a health policy expert at the University of North Carolina, called Obama's various proposed money-saving healthcare efficiencies wishful thinking, telling the Times: "Do they have the potential to generate significant savings in the long run? Yes. Do I believe they will produce substantial savings in the short run that can be used to finance Obama's plan? No."