From The Pgh Post Gazette
Editorial

Here’s a statistic guaranteed to make you sick: Health-care insurance costs rose 7.7 percent last year. As if anyone needs reminding, that was more than twice the rate of inflation in 2005 and equally far above the pay raises most workers received.

But maybe we should be happy. The 7.7 percent increase was the smallest since 2000 and was the third consecutive year in which the upward spiral of health costs slowed. Those numbers mirror the trend in Pittsburgh, where a March survey found companies in the region facing average increases of 9 percent, the first time in five years the hikes were below double digits.

So why isn’t anyone celebrating? Because according to the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust, health insurance premiums have jumped 87 percent over the past six years, to an average of $11,480 a year per family.

The rising tab for health care has become an issue of extreme concern to all but the wealthiest and is weighing especially heavily on this nation’s employers, who pay 73 percent of the cost.

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