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I'm no health care expert, but you've got technology that constantly advances the ability to extend life and maybe improve lifestyle. That puts constant upward pressure on health care costs.

We have really good data that show when you take patients and you really inform them about their choices, patients make more frugal choices. They pick more efficient choices than the health care system does.

I want to give consumers way more choices in health care. Choice and competition always drive down costs better than central control.

We all want more information available when making health care decisions for ourselves and our families.

We must solve the problem in health care by curbing out-of-control costs that erode paychecks for working families and push quality coverage out of reach for millions of Americans.

If we focus on our health, including our inner health, our self-esteem, and how we look at ourselves and our confidence level, we'll tend to be healthier people anyway, we'll tend to make better choices for our lives, for our bodies, we'll always be trying to learn more, and get better as time goes on.

That's one of the ironies of our time: Right when we're on the edge of serious improvements in health care, we're also cooking the planet.

I think we do better as a country when we go step by step toward a goal, and the goal in this case should be reducing health care costs.

Providing patients and consumers with solid information on the cost and quality of their healthcare options can literally make the difference between life or death; and play a decisive role in whether a family or employer can afford healthcare.

As patients and consumers, we are better informed today about our health care than any previous generation.