Somewhere between scary false terms such as “death panel,” voiced by opponents of the Obama administration’s health care reform (the Affordable Care Act, or ACA), and the truly scary increase in the cost of health care lies a reasoned, enlightened conversation about what is appropriate care, and what it costs.

Often, the last people to endeavor to defuse the rhetoric and reality of medical care in America are the people who provide it. After all, consumers and insurers want and expect doctors and other caregivers to be, first and foremost, scientist-artists who can diagnose individual problems and treat them. We don’t expect them to be actuarial types, who perform cost-benefit analyses, and make treatment decisions based on numbers.