Saving Trillions in Health Care, One Patient at a Time

Yesterday, the Obama administration built momentum for an ambitious plan aimed at reducing the rising cost of health care. The administration announced $2 trillion in voluntary cost reductions over ten years by hospitals, doctors, drug makers, and insurance companies. But will this volunteer plan work? Or will the Obama administration need to regulate the industry with a firmer hand? And where do you, the private citizen, come in when it comes to taking care of yourself and your healthcare? Joining the conversation is Henry J. Aaron, who served as the Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare during the Carter administration. He is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Also on The Takeaway is Dean Karlan. He’s a behavioral economist at Yale and a co-founder of StickK.com, a site that helps you reach personal goals, like being healthier, by giving yourself an incentive. He’s here to help explain how change, especially in health care, can actually trickle up from individuals to the national level.