Price Waterhouse Coopers annual medical costs trends report suggests that a 9 percent increase in health insurance coverage will occur in 2010. This 9 percent increase is primarily for businesses and their employer sponsored health plans. Though employers may suffer a 9 percent cost increase in health insurance coverage, employees might have to cope with an even larger increase in coverage.

PWC implies that some of the reasons for this increase in costs is due to employees being concerned about losing their jobs therefore using their health insurance as much as possible while it is still available to them. Another reason for this increase is increasing medical costs as employment rises. More and more uninsured people are turning to Medicaid causing health coverage costs to rise.

A survey done by PWC that involved over 500 employers concluded that 42 percent will increase health care costs for employees in the form of higher premiums, deductibles, and copays.

“As the economy recovers, employers will refocus on more sustainable longer term approaches to medical cost containment based on an increasingly shared interest between employers and their workers,” says Price Waterhouse Coopers Principal Michael Thompson.

Check out the U.S. News article at http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/06/18/health-highlights-june–18–2009.html