It is undeniable that the cost of health care in the United States has steadily increased relative to the salaries of employees who pay for access to better health care. There is a general fear among these employees that if the rising cost of health care is not controlled, there will come a time, and some analysts believe the time is already here, when these employees will no longer be able to afford to pay for health care. take care of themselves and their families. This fear of the unknown is especially evident among people nearing retirement. Employers have long shifted the burden of the high cost of affordable health care onto their employees, which has significantly reduced employees' standards of living over the past two years. Likewise, rising health care costs could also drive up inflation and make U.S.-made goods and services less competitive in international markets in the long run, as rising health care costs could possibly result in an increase in product prices. Since the 1960s, government budgets have been cut. influenced by the need to finance health care, particularly the cost of Medicare and Medicaid benefits. According to CMS National Health Spending Projections, total health care spending has grown an average of 2.5 percentage points faster per year than the nation's gross domestic product. For about 60 percent of workers with some form of health care coverage from their employer, the cost of their health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses have increased much faster than their own wages; and between 1999 and 2008, average health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs for deductibles, drug co-payments, and coinsurance...... middle of document ...... regarding small-scale reform Business and TheirEmployees, July 25, 2009 http://www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/CEA-smallbusiness-july24.pdf Accessed January 17, 2014Fred JB & Fottler, 2011. Fundamentals of Human Resources in Healthcare. Administrative Health Press, Chicago, IL. Print. Himmelstein, D. et al, (2005). Illness and injury as contributing factors to bankruptcy. Health Affairs. http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/early/2005/02/02/hlthaff.w5.63.citation Accessed January 19, 2014 Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, Long-Term Care Spending Growth of Medicaid, 1990-2006, May 19, 2008. http://facts.kff.org/chart.aspx?ch=476. Accessed January 23, 2014Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Survey of Employer Sponsored Health Benefits 2000-2008 http://kff.org/private-insurance/report/2013-employer-health-benefits/ Accessed January 15, 2014