U.S. News | Voters See Very Different Healthcare Plans from Obama, Clinton, and McCain

. . . "The middle class is worried about affordability. They see it in rising premiums and in copays," says Len Nichols, director of the Health Policy Program at the New America Foundation. Premiums rose 6.1 percent last year, more than twice the rate of inflation and significantly outstripping the 3.7 percent increase in workers' earnings, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's 2007 Employer Health Benefits Survey. Since 2001, healthcare costs have increased 78 percent, according to Kaiser. Meanwhile, high healthcare costs make it increasingly difficult for businesses to compete against companies overseas that typically don't offer health benefits, says Nichols. Since 2000, the portion of firms offering health insurance has shrunk from 69 percent to 60 percent. . .