Economist Thomas C. Schelling, who died last month at age 95, is most well known for conceiving the concept of mutually assured destruction—the notion that the best way to prevent devastating war is to convince your adversary he won’t survive your annihilation. In a To the Point post, David Blumenthal, M.D., Commonwealth Fund president and Schelling’s former student and colleague, reflects on the Nobel Laureate’s explorations of game theory, its implications for public policy, and what solutions Schelling might have imagined for our current health care debate.