Should We Pay People to Be Healthier?

Smoking cessation is an uphill battle. Without their regular dose of nicotine, habitual smokers go through powerful withdrawals. Still, of the 34 million smokers in the United States, most will tell you they want to stop smoking. They know that it’s bad for them; they just don’t know how to quit. The monetary costs of ill health are overwhelming, both to the individual and health care providers. When you consider disease and death, the social costs are even worse. So how do you get people to adopt healthy behavior? This episode of the Freakonomics M.D. podcast offers an overview of promising, research-backed strategies.