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There's a good chance that health care costs for the typical family of four now are higher than their annual mortgage payment.

Health care costs are projected to reach $20,728 this year for a family of four insured through the most common health plan offered by employers, according to the annual Milliman Medical Index.

The index includes the cost of health insurance and out-of-pocket costs, such as deductibles and co-pays.

This year, employers will pay an average of $12,144 toward the total cost, while employees will pay the remaining $8,584 through their share of the cost of health insurance and out-of-pocket expenses.

"When it comes down to it, that's a lot of money for the typical family of four," said Scott Weltz, a consulting actuary with the Milwaukee office of Milliman, an actuarial and consulting firm with an office in Milwaukee.

This year's projected health care cost is up almost 70% from an estimated $12,214 in 2005.

Yet few people realize just how much of their total compensation from their job comes in the form of health benefits or what they spend on health care.

The cost works out to about $1,727 a month. By comparison, the monthly payment on a 30-year, $350,000 mortgage at 4% comes to about $1,671 a month.

"Most people are insulated from the true cost of health care," Weltz said.

But economists agree that the rise in the cost of providing health benefits has depressed wages over the long term.

The Milliman Medical Index, which does not include the cost of dental care, projects that health care costs will increase 6.9% this year. This is more than triple the current rate of inflation.

The Consumer Price Index, which measures inflation at the consumer level, increased 2.3% over the last 12 months, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday.

"While trends have slowed down slightly from where they have been in the past, costs still are increasing well above general inflation," Weltz said.

The Milliman Medical Index has increased 7% to 8% a year since 2008.

The estimate is based on costs for a family enrolled in the most common plan, a so-called preferred provider organization - a network of hospitals, physicians and other health care providers who have agreed to negotiated discounts.

Health care costs vary by family and location, and the index and other surveys provide only estimates.

Nationally, total health care spending increased 3.9% in 2010 and 4% in 2009, the slowest rate of growth in more than five decades.

Part of the slowdown is attributed to the rise in unemployment and increase in people without health insurance. But an array of other factors also could be at work, from physicians becoming more conscious of costs to high-deductible health plans becoming more common.

Total health care spending is even higher than the figures in the Milliman Medical Index: $8,402 a person in 2010. That amounts to $33,608 for a family of four.

The index also doesn't include what a typical family pays in state and federal taxes for government health programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. And though the percentage increase projected for this year is the lowest in the past decade, the total dollar increase is the largest: $1,335.

"This helps illustrate the challenge of controlling health care costs," Lorraine Mayne, a Milliman principal and consulting actuary, said in a news release. "When the total cost is already so high, even slower rate of growth has a serious impact on family budgets."