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The
relentless rise in health care costs is causing states and
businesses to fight over whose job it is to insure workers.
And nearly two dozen states, struggling with the growing
burden of providing public assistance to people with jobs
but no insurance, are looking to shift more of the financial
burden onto the workers' employers.
Last month, for example, Maryland, which spends roughly $350
million a year on health care for the uninsured, passed a
bill requiring the state's very largest employers to spend
at least 8 percent of their payrolls on health benefits for
their workers. Lawmakers elsewhere, including Connecticut,
are considering legislation that may also require some
companies to provide coverage, either directly or by paying
into a state fund.
Some measures, as with a New Jersey proposal, would let
companies bid on state contracts only if they provided
health insurance for their workers.
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