Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers told CNBC on Wednesday that Obamacare has already yielded benefits to the economy. He also said the Federal Reserve should concentrate on pushing the economy to expand.



"If you look at the medium run and the long run, the important thing that's happened for growth is, that in the last three years since Obamacare was passed, we have bent the [cost] curve on health-care costs," he said in a "Squawk Box" interview.

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The problems with the federal health insurance website HealthCare.gov have been "exciting theater" for the media, the former Obama advisor said. "Getting it right is obviously going to be important to fully getting the benefits of Obamacare."



But he said that health-care reform has cut costs as a percentage of GDP. "That offers huge promise with respect to the future of the federal deficit, which looks much less serious than it did even a couple of years ago."

