The health care industry in the U.S. is peculiar. We spend close to 18% of our GDP on health care, yet other countries get better results—and we don't know why. To date, we still lack widely accepted answers to such simple questions as "Would requiring everyone to buy health insurance make all of us better off?" The standard tools of health economics can only take us so far. This book draws on behavioral economics as an alternative lens to provide more clarity in diagnosing the ills of health care today.\\A behavioral perspective makes sense of key contradictions—from the seemingly irrational choices that we sometimes make as consumers, to the incongruous behavior of providers, to the morass of the long-lived debate surrounding reform. With the new health care law in effect, it is more important than ever that consumers, the health care industry, and the policymakers who are governing change reckon with the power and sources of our behavior when it comes to health.

What is behavioral economics -- and why should we care? -- Keeping what we have, even if we don't like it -- Managing expectations and behavior -- Understanding the stubbornly inconsistent patient -- Understanding the stubbornly inconsistent consumer -- Understanding the medical decision making process, or, Why a physician can make the same mistakes as a patient -- Explaining the cumulative impact of physicians' decisions -- Can we use the concepts of behavioral economics to transform health care?.