In its most recent Health Care Costs Snapshot report, "Wages and Benefits: A Long-Term View," Kaiser examines the growth in employer costs for private group health benefits compared with wages and other benefits.

The report explains that health insurance premiums rose 78% between 2001 and 2007 while workers' earnings rose 19% by comparison. (During the same period, general inflation rose 17%.) It further illustrates how health care costs have skyrocketed historically: the total amount spent by employers on group health insurance policies grew from an average of $36 billion per year during the 1960s to $465 billion per year during the 2000s--and was $536 billion in 2006 (the most recent year covered in the analysis).

Wages have remained the largest component of total employee compensation during the same period (1960-2006). However, they have fallen as a percentage of total economic activity, or gross domestic product (GDP)--from 51.8% in 1960 to 45.6% in 2006. Conversely, health benefit costs have increased in the same period from 0.6% to 4.1% of GDP.

In addition, "employer payments for health benefits have increased as a share of total employee compensation in each decade" the report notes--from an average of 1.4% in the 1960s to 7.2% in 2006, while the share going to wages has fallen.

Kaiser concludes that health care expenses aren't only a burden on people "directly when they use medical goods and services" but may also "affect families' well-being by slowing the increase in their paychecks each year."

Source: Kaiser Family Foundation