"Meanwhile, a growing number of workers at smaller firms are getting less coverage for their money as health plans with high deductibles and fewer benefits become more prevalent.

"The portion of workers with single coverage who pay a deductible of at least $1,000 has jumped from 10 percent to 18 percent in the last two years. Among smaller firms with three to 199 employees, the rate has more than doubled from 16 percent to 35 percent.

"We may be seeing the tip of the iceberg of a trend towards less comprehensive, skimpier insurance with higher out-of-pocket payments for working people," said Drew Altman, President and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation. "That's bad news at a time when workers are being by hit other economic pressures from declining 401(k)s to higher food and gas prices and problems paying the rent and mortgage."

On average, workers now pay $3,354 ”about 27 percent” toward the $12,680 annual cost for family coverage, according to the survey of 1,927 public and private companies by the Kaiser foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust.

But soaring health care costs continue to hurt both employers and workers. The overall cost of family coverage has increased 119 percent since 1999; that's roughly four times faster than the rate of inflation ”29 percent” over the same period. It's more than three times faster than workers' earnings, which have increased 34 percent in the last nine years.

About 158 million people are covered by employer-sponsored health plans. Most large companies with more than 200 workers provide health coverage, compared to only 62 percent of smaller firms.

IM Construction, a Sacramento, Ca. homebuilder with 135 employees, is typical of smaller companies that are cutting their health insurance costs by switching to consumer-directed plans with high deductibles.

The company provided health coverage for each employee plus one additional person. But two years ago, they began covering only the employee, said company controller, Jason de Lemos.

The company also switched their coverage from an HMO to cheaper, high-deductible Health Reimbursement Accounts, or HRAs. In HRAs, employers provide money to help employees pay medical expenses. Once the money has expired, the employee picks up the additional charges.

Other key findings from the survey include:

18,000 people die yearly in the US due to lack of health care coverage.  How many more must die before this health care coverage issue becomes worse than it is now?  Must mirror the current financial disaster?  This is the 21 century, for Pete's sake! 

The United States, after more than fifty years since the Truman administration's single payer, government administered health care coverage failed to pass a reactionary Republican controlled Congress, needs to join the family of industrialized nation and a Democratic controlled Congress must pass HR 676, Medicare for All.  Better a half century late than never.