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Report: Workers Falling Behind Due To Rising Health Care Costs

By Pat Loeb

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A new report shows workers falling behind because health insurance costs are rising faster than wages.

The price of employer-provided health insurance has gone up an average of 49% for a single worker in Philadelphia, according to a report released Wednesday by the Commonwealth Fund, and author Cathy Schoen says that's costing workers in a number of ways.

"The employees share has been going up faster as employers have shifted more of the premium costs to employees," she says.

Single workers in Philadelphia pay 93% more for their policies than they did in 2003, but they're also paying more for health care because those policies have higher deductibles. Not only that, Schoen says, it's costing them on the income side, as well.

"They've been trading off wages to hold on to benefits," she says.

The report says if premiums grew by just 1% less a year, family income would increase $2000.

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