Reports on rising health care costs are beginning to seem like abroken record. Each report (accurately) says health care costs arecontinuing to rise for Americans and their families. That's why thelatest data won't be a surprise.

According to the annual Behind the Numbers report on medicalcosts released by PricewaterhouseCooper's Health ResearchInstitute, health care costs are expected to increase by 8.5percent in 2012. This figure is up slightly from the 8 percent risein 2011. Considering the total medical costs for a family of fourin 2010 was in excess of $18,000, any increase can have negativeripple effects on families who are continuing to deal with thelackluster economy.

The report, however, notes some good news. Among the factorsthat will help lower costs are high deductible health plans, whichhave been the fastest growing type of plan in 2011, according toPwC. Even better, a new multi-year study of health care claims of655,000 CIGNA customers shows that as overall medical costscontinue to experience double-digit jumps annually, medical costsfor individuals in account-based consumer-driven health plansactually went down 26 percent over four years.