health costs

As costs rise, employers are shifting the burden of health care contributions to workers in top salary brackets.

It hurts more now to be unemployed than the last time the jobless rate hit 10 percent, what with higher rates of indebtedness, less than half the savings and ballooning health costs.

President Obama pressed ahead to build support for his health care plan, while a new report said a proposed agency to cut health costs may not give substantial savings.

(RAND Corporation) A first-of-its-kind study has linked the rapid growth in health care costs in the United States with job losses and lower output among industries that commonly provide workers with health insurance.

Researchers from the RAND Corporation found that, after adjusting for other factors, industries where a larger percentage of workers received employer-sponsored health insurance had significantly lower employment growth during the 19-year study period than industries where health benefits were less common.