Kudos to Victor Fuchs for a JAMA article (which unfortunately is gated) and to Fuchs and Ezekiel Emanuel in a Chicago Tribune editorial that says much the same thing.  Economic statistics show what common sense should have told us anyway: health insurance and other employee benefits come at the expense of money wages.  Far from be being a gift from employers, health insurance is "paid for" by employees and health cost increases are the primary reason for stagnating wage growth.

A new study from the Southern Economic Journal found that small business firms will avoid hiring someone with high-expected health costs if doing so means they will pay more for insurance.  Also they are more successful at this than large firms.  State health care reforms meant to prohibit such activity have little effect.