Medical and health insurance benefit costs are competing forretirement savings dollars, according to a majority of workers whosay that how much they save for retirement depends on how much theyhave to spend for health insurance.

That’s according to new LIMRA research, which found that 59percent of workers agreed or strongly agreed that the one exerted adirect effect on the other.

Read: Retirement savers must plan for health caresticker shock

It’s another example of the financial stress onworkers—something a larger LIMRA study was designed toevaluate.

Not only are employees balancing the cost of health benefitsagainst the necessity of retirement savings, but between a quarterand half of full-time employees experience high levels offinancial stress, according to thestudy.

Read: EBRI offers new way to calculate retirementsavings needs

And those with the most financial stress spend the most timethinking about their health insurance and the least amount on otherbenefits.

In contrast, those who are under the least amount of financialstress are most likely to think about their retirement plans “veryoften.”

While 20 percent of employees claim that financial stressaffects their personal relationships and their health more than itimpacts their ability to get the job done, employers aren’t sooptimistic about how those people perform in the workplace. Infact, some believe employee financial stress will cause enoughproblems at work to affect the company’s bottom line.

As a result, many employers are opting for financial wellnessprograms, believing that the financial education such programsprovide can deliver returns on investments similar to healthwellness programs by reducing sick leave, disability, etc., andincreasing worker productivity.

But employers aren’t necessarily offering the kind of financialwellness programs that employees actually want and find the mosthelpful.

Although they’re available to just a quarter of employees, thosethat provide guidance on such topics as debt management, scamavoidance and general budgeting are the ones that are rankedhighest by employees compared with any other financial educationtopics.