Opinion: Reality check—There's no easy way to put a lid on healthcare costs

Critics of the 2010 Affordable Care Act complain that it doesn't do much to control the healthcare costs that are becoming unsustainable for families and businesses. In fact, the law does many small things; the latest is the grant program announced last week to teach Medicare and Medicaid doctors new ways to offer higher-quality, better-coordinated, more cost-effective care. The four-year goal is to turn $840 million in grants into $5 billion in savings — a number that sounds big until it's compared with the nearly $4 trillion in annual healthcare spending in the United States.