Kaiser Foundation: Health Care Costs Growing Twice as Fast as Wages

The Kaiser Family Foundation is reporting that employer-provided health care costs rose 7.7 percent in 2006, far outstripping the corresponding growth in wages.  The result: additional pressure on American workers.  Although the growth in costs is slightly slower that than 2005, it still is an unsustainable level of growth over the long-term.  Congress urgently needs to address the structural problems with the U.S. health care system: the income tax penalty on individual health care purchases, a lack of competition from restrictions that limit association health care plans and medical savings accounts, and runaway lawsuit abuse.