President says health-care fraud, abuse must end

ST. CHARLES, Mo. (AP) — President Barack Obama says Washington for too long has accepted billions of dollars in health-care fraud and abuse as simply the cost of doing business. He says that must end.

Obama said today improper health payments cost taxpayers $100 billion each year — more than Washington spends on education and the Small Business Administration combined.

Obama says he was sent to Washington to change that system, so earlier in the day he signed an order expanding the use of high-tech bounty hunters to help root out health-care fraud, a populist idea with bipartisan backing.

The president came to Missouri as the latest piece of his closing argument on his health-care overhaul. He says inaction would hurt Americans.