Cost-Containment

While single employee costs decreased, family costs increased. Employees with dependents had to pick up 3 percent more of the family premium, or $492 on average.

Fast-food protests are under way in cities including New York, Chicago and Detroit, with organizers expecting the biggest national walkouts yet in a demand for higher wages.

The institute's aim is to help create a large body of knowledge that would be the basis for best practices both procedural and spending-wise for a range of medical procedures.

Some political conservatives are sure to balk, but according to these economists, the PPACA has had little or no real impact on the relatively high percentage of part-time workers seen today.

Gap or bridge insurance covers some of the out-of-pocket health care costs that are increasingly difficult for employees to shoulder, including deductibles that can go as high as $10,000.

Delta Air Lines is the second Atlanta-based public company to make the news this week for its complaints about the high cost of Obamacare. Earlier, UPS said it would no longer cover employees spouses if those spouses were employed at another company that offered health coverage.

Gov. Peter Shumlin says the state of Vermont is going to save $10 million a year by switching the company that manages the health insurance plan for state employees.

Citing a trend among other companies to refuse coverage to spouses employed by another company that offers coverage, the undated memo cites PPACA as providing the impetus for the design change.