New data on unsustainable health care cost increases

Family health insurance premiums rose about 5 percent this year, which is much more than general inflation (which fell 0.7 percent during the same period), according to the benchmark 2009 Employer Health Benefits Survey released by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust.

The report reminds us that since 1999, premiums have gone up a total of 131 percent, far more rapidly than workers' wages (up 38 percent since 1999) or inflation (up 28 percent since 1999).