Health care costs to rise 9 pct in 2010

Source: (AP)

Employers who offer health insurance coverage could see a 9 percent cost increase next year, and their workers may face an even bigger hit, according to a report from consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Costs will rise in part because workers worried about losing their jobs are using their health care more while they still have it, the firm said in the report released to The Associated Press. The report also said rising unemployment is driving up medical costs.

Health care reform legislation currently being hashed out in Congress likely will have little impact on next year's costs, said PWC principal Michael Thompson. But he noted that the intense focus on health care may slow price increases.


The report projects the expected cost increase per person for employee benefits plans, and it factors in things such as price increases, as well as utilization changes


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"If the underlying costs go up by 9 percent, employees' costs actually go up by double digits," he said, noting that will have a "major, major impact" when many employers also are freezing or cutting pay.

A total of 42 percent of employers surveyed said they would increase employees' share of costs.

The 9 percent increase predicted for 2010, however, represents a slight decrease from the 9.2 percent PWC projected for this year, and 9.9 percent predicted for 2008. A growing use of generic drugs has helped tame spending, according to the most recent survey.

independent business owner, private insurance, corporately screwed. . .

Mess with it and you will mess up what is obviously (to anyone who doesn't do any actual research or just doesn't care about other people) the BEST HEALTH CARE SYSTEM IN THE WORLD!

Ohmygod, I've been possessed by a Republican congressman.

:shrug:

Industrial Nation.

this is ridiculous

The Corporations have too much clout and $$$$ to let it fail totally (Ie: the top 10% will always live large in our society.)

The Sheep will complain, play the lottery and continue to reproduce like rabbits in ever increasing squalor.

fucking greedy sons of short dicks.

The only insurance I can afford has deductibles that eliminate all but major surgery.

And of course major surgery will make you ineligible for any change in insurance because you will be a high risk.

We need Single Payer Universal Health Care ... and we need it NOW!

They will drive the country to single payer yet.