The Burden of Health Care Costs for Working Families — Implications for Reform

On June 2, 2009, President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers released a report examining the economic case for health care reform, in which they underscored the importance of cost containment to the long-term sustainability of any reform.1 Despite widespread recognition of the importance of containing costs, political support for this agenda is limited by the fact that those who shoulder the financial burden of maintaining the current system — primarily, working families — are not fully aware of that burden's full weight.Having constructed a typical health care budget for working families of various income levels, we found that . . .