Obama health overhaul cuts US deficit: Congress

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama's historic health overhaul legislation would cut $130 billion from the US budget deficit through 2019, according to figures provided by Democratic lawmakers.

The independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicts that the bill, Obama's top domestic priority, will cost about $940 billion over the same period, but cut 1.2 trillion in its second ten years, they said.

Those estimates are politically critical because Obama set a trillion-dollar ceiling on the overhaul and had said he wanted it not to increase the ballooning US budget deficit.

The CBO found that the plan would extend health coverage to some 32 million Americans who currently lack it, Democrats said.

The CBO also found that the legislation would lead to cuts in waste from the Medicare government-run care for the elderly and extend the hugely popular programme's solvency by at least nine years, they said.