As policymakers seek to address the nation’s burgeoning deficit, they are ultimately confronted with how to rein in rising health care costs. Complicating the problem is the fact that policymakers, hospital executives, employers, consumers and others may use the single phrase “health care costs” to refer to several very different ideas, including the costs of health care services, their prices, reimbursements to providers, health insurance premiums, and patients’ out-of-pocket spending. Distinguishing among trends in costs, prices and overall health care