If you get your health insurance through work, expect to see a memo soon asking you to share more of the pain of rising costs. New health-care-reform initiatives, such as the requirement to offer coverage to children up to age 26, are just one factor in ever-rising medical costs that continue to push up premiums. And sagging profits from the weak economy mean health care hogs a bigger share of the budget.

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Large employers expect their health-care-benefit costs to rise 8.9%, on average, in 2011, compared with 7% in 2010, according to a survey by the National Business Group on Health. Part of that increase will be passed on to workers, who have already seen their share of health-insurance premiums skyrocket nearly 150% over the past decade, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Although the total price of a family policy rose just 3% in 2010, to an average of $13,770, the employee share jumped 14% -- an increase of nearly $500 -- to about $4,000, according to Kaiser. Average annual premiums for individual coverage rose 5% in 2010, to $5,049, but the employee share jumped 15%, to about $900 a year. As you choose from the health-plan menu during open-enrollment season, a few tactics will help you lessen the sting.