There is no denying the fact that the cost of healthcare in the United States is constantly increasing compared to the wages of employees who pay to have access to better healthcare. There is a general fear among these employees that if rising health care costs are not brought under control, the time will come, and some analysts think it has already come, when those employees will not be able to afford health care services. take care of themselves and their families. This fear of the unknown is especially evident among those approaching retirement. Employers have now, at times, shifted the burden of the high cost of affordable healthcare onto their employees, and this has significantly reduced employees' living standards over the past two years. Similarly, rising health care costs could also raise inflation and make U.S.-made goods and services less competitive in international markets in the long run, because rising health care costs could ultimately be reflected in an increase of product prices. Since the 1960s, government budgets have been 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 spending has grown on average 2.5 percentage points faster per year than the nation's gross domestic product. For the roughly 60% of workers who receive some form of health coverage from their employers, the cost of health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses has risen significantly faster than their own wages; and between 1999 and 2008, both average health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses for deductibles, drug co-payments, and coinsurance......half of the paper......small business reform and theirEmployees, July 25, 2009 http://www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/CEA-smallbusiness-july24.pdf Retrieved January 17, 2014Fred J.B. & Fottler, 2011.Fundamentals of Human Resources in Healthcare. Health Administrative Press, Chicago, Illinois. Print.Himmelstein, D. et al, (2005). Illness and injury as contributors to failureHealth affairs. http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/early/2005/02/02/hlthaff.w5.63.citation Retrieved January 19, 2014Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, Growth in Long-Term Care Spending by Medicaid, 1990-2006, May 19, 2008. http://facts.kff.org/chart.aspx?ch=476. Retrieved 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/ Retrieved January 15, 2014