Rising costs will drive health care change, with or without Congress

As health care costs continue to rise, more and more employers are looking at ways to either cut benefits or increase the amount employees pay towards those benefits. Without some significant action from Congress this year to contain health care costs, you can certainly expect to see more employers reduce their share of the health care cost pie.

That's because health insurance premiums have increased 131 percent since 1999, costing a company an average of $13,375 per employee family in 2009, according to a new study released by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Inflation has grown only 28 percent during that time and wages have grown 38 percent.