Washington Post Documents Covers Rising Health Costs

On March 24^th the Washington Post published an article documenting the impact of rising health care costs on workers paid by wages. Total benefits, which include health care, have increased from 27.4% of worker costs in 2000 to 30.2% in 2008. The article quotes many sources, all discussing the difficulty people are having paying for health care, while addressing candidate proposals for health care changes.

This is a good example of an article from traditional media covering health care, though it does a better job of addressing policy details than most. The article remains almost totally neutral and is very balanced, quoting employers with different strategies for dealing with health care costs. The journalist subtly appears to side with employers doing more to cover workers themselves, rather than leaving coverage to workers, as he quotes a worker who completely rejects her employers insurance, which only offers a health savings account combined with deductibles, while all other workers are content with their employers’ efforts.