41.   In health care, Texas is trying to pay for teacher health insurance, deal with Medicaid cost increases, and improve state reimbursement rates for health care providers.

42.   Instead of passing cost increases along to consumers, companies increasingly try to wring them out of their own production processes.

43.   Missouri is only one of many states that are inventing novel approaches to throttle down the galloping cost increases and improve patient access at the same time.

44.   Most employers are facing double-digit cost increases for health insurance plans next year, and many of them are passing on a good chunk of those costs to workers.

45.   Much will depend on future negotiations between foreign companies and their Chinese partners, as the two sides decide how to split the cost increase.

46.   Much of the cost increase is due to inflation, costlier auto parts, insurance increases and rising medical and rehabilitation expenses.

47.   Nancy Lazar, an economist and partner at the ISI Group, a Wall Street firm, cites mergers as still another explanation for mild labor cost increases.

48.   Not all employers are dealing with cost increases by raising deductibles, of course.

49.   Not only did his cost estimate increase dramatically, but so did his ambitions.