Rising Costs ‘Breaking Down’ U.S. Health Care System, Opinion Piece States

Recent labor contract negotiations that have centered around health benefits, three consecutive years of double-digit premium increases and a growing number of uninsured individuals indicates that the U.S. "health care system is breaking down," Los Angeles Times reporter Ronald Brownstein writes in an opinion piece. According to Brownstein, "The real issue is that costs are rising so fast that the burdens are growing unbearable for employers and employees." To reduce costs and increase access to health coverage, the United States should adopt a "more equitable sharing" of health care costs in which the government and businesses would pay a greater share of the cost, Brownstein writes. The extra cost of universal coverage -- about $75 billion annually -- is "almost trivial" in a nation that "already spends $1.6 trillion on health care," Brownstein concludes (Brownstein, Los Angeles Times, 10/20).