An Easy Cut to US Health Care Spending?

The RAND corporation reports a study detailed in yesterday's New York Times about a significant health care saving strategy, which may be a surprise to some.

Mr. Obama, want to save 18 billion in health care spending without incurring any extra cost? Sounds great, huh? What is this secret strategy? Influence the decrease in US salt consumption.

Currently, the average salt intake in the USA is 3400 milligrams. The RAND study showed that cutting back to the recommended goal of 2300 milligrams could reduce the incidence of hypertension by 11 million cases. 18 billion may even be somewhat conservative as improvements in quality of life and the possibility of regained workdays are hard to quantify. Nevertheless, some economists believe the savings can total an extra $32 billion. Yes, that is billion with a "b".