Economic advisers extol benefits of cutting healthcare spending

Slowing the growth in healthcare spending from 6% a year to 4.5% would have enormous benefits for the nation's economy, creating as many as 500,000 jobs a year, President Obama's chief economic advisers said yesterday. In a report, the Council of Economic Advisers concludes that cutting costs while extending coverage to the 46 million people who lack health insurance would also dramatically improve the federal budget outlook, remove "unnecessary barriers" to job mobility and increase the nation's overall economic well-being by "roughly" $100 billion a year.