President Barack Obama on Monday outlined plans to cut health care costs by $2 trillion (£1.3 trillion) in the United States over the next decade, in a bid to slash spending while making treatment more affordable.

Mr Obama was joined at the White House by 15 representatives of the medical industry who have promised to do their part in reducing America's crippling health bills.

Signatories to the deal include groups whose lobbying was instrumental in killing Hillary Clinton's health care reform plan in 1993 when she was first lady.