Employers see health care costs rising 9 percent, survey finds - Wichita Business Journal:

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Costs increased 9.2 percenyt in 2009 and 9.9 percent in 2008, accordingf to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Despite the slowdown, medical cost increaseds continue to outpace inflation and wage One reason medical costs continue to climn is that workers are acceleratingh use of health care services in anticipation of losing theirjobs and, potentially, their healthb insurance, the report suggested. Rising unemployment, growing numberzs of people with little or no insurancw and a growing percentage of the population on Medicaid furthefr ramp up medical costtrends — the figures actuarie use to set future health insurance premiums.
Coupled with big declines in corporate profits, employers surveyed by said they will push more of the cost s of health insurance to their workers in while expecting workers to take more responsibility for managingg theirpersonal health. The national trends suggest that most employeras and employees will pay far more than thosde in the purchasing pool run by the CaliforniaPublicx Employees’ Retirement System. The pension fund approved an overalll 2.9 percent increase in health care premiums for memberasin 2010, the lowest rate increase in 14 years.