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12 ways to cut health care costs.

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12 ways to cut health care costs

How you can rein in health care bills * yours and society's.

Our carbon footprints are calculations of the greenhouse gases we're individually responsible for. Reduce yours, and you can take some satisfaction in having done something, however small, to reduce emissions and slow global warming.

Now might be a good time to start thinking about our health care footprints. Reforming health care and extending medical insurance to all Americans have become national priorities, despite * or maybe because of * the weak economy. But those efforts are likely to founder unless spending on health care is brought under control.

Serious reform and belt tightening can't happen without new policies from Washington, but individual responsibility and action can both set an example and make a contribution. It all adds up. Besides, even people with good health coverage are paying a larger fraction of their health care bills these days, in the form of co-pays, deductibles, and other out-of-pocket expenses. There's a direct personal interest in reining in costs, not just a societal one.

We polled our editorial board to get some ideas about what people might do as individuals about health care spending. Dr. Soheyla Gharib suggested the term health care footprint to us. Here are a dozen suggestions for making yours a bit smaller:

1. Develop a...

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