To contain health-care costs, employees must choose medical providers wisely and play a larger role in managing how their benefit dollars are spent.

That was the view offered by a panel of four health-care experts speaking Thursday during the South Jersey Industry Forecast, a presentation of the Cherry Hill Regional Chamber of Commerce.

He acknowledged "employers are reaching the point of desperation" in trying to contain costs. Yet, companies still use good benefits to attract workers, he said.

Small businesses are coping with rising costs by redesigning benefit packages, Friedman said, while others shop around for competitive premiums. Large companies take a long-range approach to the problem of rising costs by urging employees to improve their health through behavior change.

Employers will remain the source of health-care benefits, he predicted. But the management of those dollars will increasingly fall to employees.

According to hospital executive Hatala, emergency rooms and consumers at large absorb the brunt of the health-care costs incurred by the uninsured.

"We take all comers, regardless of ability to pay," he said, referring to policy at New Jersey hospitals regarding the state's 1 million uninsured citizens.

The state of Massachusetts is studying a citizens' health-care mandate requiring everyone to carry insurance, Hatala said. Society would benefit since a larger pool of insured people would fuel the system.

Echoing that theme, Young of Aetna said many people are uninsured because of cost, but others choose to remain uninsured, especially working young adults aged 18 to 34.

Policy-makers need to develop affordable health care in a free marketplace, he said. He also supports expanded access to coverage for the uninsured.

It is also important to make information available to consumers about excellent hospitals, the best doctors, and the cost of medical procedures and drugs.

Business has been making progress on holding down costs, with increases slowing for each of the past three years. In 2005, expenses rose to 6.1 percent as compared to a peak of 15 percent between 2001 and 2002, according to a Mercer study.

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