The Simple Habit That Can Deflate America’s $7T Health Tab

Conscious care means PCP first. Urgent care next. ER only when it’s truly urgent. getty

Spoiler alert: You — not Congress — may be the most powerful cost‑containment tool in U.S. medicine. National health spending is projected to surge to $7 trillion this year and swallow more than 31% of the GDP within a decade. Yet as much as a 30% of that outlay is pure waste : redundant scans, fraud and abuse, avoidable ER marathons, labyrinthine billing systems, you name it. If a quarter of every health‑care dollar is currently passing through the paper shredder, maybe the fix isn’t one more policy tweak, but a new mindset for low-cost healthcare: Conscious Care Consumption. Think of it as financial mindfulness for your body.

Why Costs Keep Climbing (Even When Your Pulse Doesn’t)

The U.