Introducing The Health Care Affordability Lab at Yale

The Health Care Affordability Lab at Yale studies why health care in the U.S. costs so much—and what can be done to slow spending growth without harming quality. We produce rigorous scholarship, translate it into clear and accessible analysis, and work directly with policymakers and key stakeholders to ensure research informs decision-making. 

Nearly one in every five dollars in the U.S. economy is spent on health care. Moreover, the U.S. health system is a key driver of economic anxiety for the American public. Right now, average insurance premiums for a family of four are approaching $27,000 a year—more than most families are paying for their mortgage. The average deductible in this country is approaching $5,000, and 31 million Americans reported taking out a payday loan to cover health care bills. 

It’s clear that a lot of the frustration Americans across the country are feeling is rooted in how our health care system works—and specifically in how it’s financed. Rising health care spending, in the context of employer-sponsored health insurance, is dragging down the wider economy and fueling income inequality. In plain terms: rising health care spending is killing the American Dream.

Here’s the good news: we can improve the system. We actually know a lot about what drives health care spending growth and what can bring it down. There are big, structural reforms we could pursue and there are also smaller, practical changes that can make a meaningful difference. 

But too often, that evidence is locked away—buried in academic journals, behind paywalls, or written in jargon. 

Why the Health Care Affordability Lab at Yale—and why now

Universities have long translated breakthroughs in the hard sciences into real-world impact. We can—and must—do the same in health policy. That’s why we’re launching the Health Care Affordability Lab at Yale. 

The goal of the Health Care Affordability Lab at Yale—a new effort within the Tobin Center for Economic Policy—is to produce new evidence that helps guide policymakers who want to make our health care system more efficient and lower the cost burden for the American public.

To do that, we’re studying the most challenging questions in health care and bringing that evidence to policymakers, journalists, and the public. 

The Lab is built to respond to a simple reality: policymakers at every level—federal, state, and local—are being asked to make high-stakes decisions about health care costs with incomplete information and limited bandwidth. 

New talent for a new approach

To make this happen, we know we need to do two things at once: generate research rooted in academic rigor and transparent methods, and translate and deliver that research to policymakers through communication, engagement, and practical tools that expand their capacity to understand problems and implement solutions in the public interest.

We won’t just publish papers. We’ll help ensure the best ideas can move forward. To do that, we’re building a team that’s not only made of health economists, data experts, and research assistants, but also a former chief of staff to a member of Congress, a former senior staffer at the White House, and a former Senate aide. To ensure our information is useful to those who need it, we’re working with first-rate communicators, including the former producer of a major television news show and former speechwriters for the Secretary of the Treasury. 

What we’ll work on

The Health Care Affordability Lab will focus on policy-relevant topics related to:

1. The causes and consequences of growth in U.S. health spending
2. How health care markets function—including where and why they fail
3. The pricing of health care goods and services—and what shapes those prices
4. The impact of competition and mergers in the health sector

That scope matters because the root causes of health care unaffordability are complex. Prices are shaped by market structure, contracting, regulation, incentives, information, and more. If we want to slow health care spending growth without harming quality, we need clear evidence on what actually works.

Research → Translation → Engagement

We’ll continue producing high-quality scholarship, but we’ll also build a reliable pipeline from evidence to action.

We’re just getting started, but here are a few examples of our work to-date:

The 1% Steps for Health Care Reform project outlines practical, evidence-based ideas that can reduce spending without sacrificing quality of care. No single reform will solve affordability on its own—but together these incremental changes add up to big savings.

Just the Facts memos for policymakers are concise, non-jargony syntheses of what the most credible research says about the most pressing policy questions in domestic health policy. Each memo is sourced and designed to support better-informed decisions by policymakers.

The Lab’s data visualizations and digital tools help decision makers across the country navigate complex data on the U.S. health care system. Policymakers shouldn’t need a full research staff to understand the health care sector or evaluate a proposal. These tools can help.

We’ll organize briefings, convenings, and events so our experts can talk directly with policymakers about the decisions they’re facing and how research and evidence can help chart the path forward. 

Our values

Our work will be defined by a few core commitments:

• Rigorous, replicable science: Transparent methods, empirical integrity, and standards that stand up to peer review and public scrutiny.
• Transparency in everything we do: From data sources to policy recommendations, we will be clear about how we reach conclusions.
• Relevance rooted in evidence: We’ll focus on questions that matter for real-world decision-making—without sacrificing scholarly depth or methodological precision.
• Impact through engagement: We don’t just publish. We translate, visualize, brief, and convene—so evidence moves from journals to the halls of power.

An invitation

There are no silver-bullet solutions to lowering health care costs. Anyone who tells you otherwise is overselling. But there are better and worse ways to manage markets, design policy, and drive efficiency in the U.S. health system. There are also choices we can make—grounded in evidence—that would help families, employers, and communities across the country.

So consider this an invitation.

If you’re an academic: share your policy-relevant research with us. We want to help elevate high-quality scholarship and get it into the hands of people who can use it.

If you’re a policymaker: tell us what questions are keeping you up at night. What decisions are you facing? What evidence would help you move faster or with more confidence?

The Health Care Affordability Lab at Yale is here to help close the gap between what we know and what we do. Because affordability isn’t an abstract debate. It’s whether Main Street keeps the lights on. It’s whether families can go to the doctor without fear of financial hardship. It’s whether people get the care they need, when they need it. 

It’s time to build a system in which coverage is affordable because care is affordable.

For invitations to events and alerts about new research findings and policy resources, sign up for the Lab’s email updates.