THANKS, W:

According to CMS's own data, the growth rate of health costs didn't start moderating in recent years -- it's been cooling off since 2002.

It's no coincidence that 2002 was also the year that employers started embracing high-deductible health insurance plans for their workforces. The plans really took off in the mid-2000s. Between 2006 and 2011, the share of American workers enrolled in one more than quadrupled, from 3 percent to 13 percent.

As of January 2011, the most recent month for which data exist, 11.4 million Americans were enrolled in consumer-directed health coverage -- a 14 percent increase over the 2010 total.

High-deductible plans give patients financial responsibility for routine medical services. The plans are coupled with Health Savings Accounts (HSA), which allow people to save pre-tax income to be spent exclusively on health care. The insurance policies kick in once the annual deductible is reached, to protect patients against health catastrophes.

Together, high-deductible plans and HSAs give patients the incentive to use some common sense when shopping for health care. Any money they don't spend they keep and can be rolled over to the next year tax free. That encourages patients to be aware of the prices they're charged -- and to avoid consuming excessive or duplicative services.

Work from the RAND Corporation finds that the average American worker who switches from a traditional health plan to a consumer-directed one uses 14 percent fewer medical services -- without any associated adverse effects on health outcomes.

Expanding the use of consumer-directed plans would dramatically reduce national health spending. RAND researchers have estimated that expanding the share of employers with such plans to 50 percent would reduce national health costs by a stunning $57 billion per year.

Follow @brothersjudd