81.   Increased enrollment in managed-care health plans like HMOs has also helped restrain overall health care costs.

82.   Lacking the tools to contain expenses, many health plans are conduits for unchecked health costs.

83.   Kay Ford, an economist at the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, said that the growing use of managed care had helped hold down health costs.

84.   Medicare makes regional adjustments in payments to HMOs to account for differences in health costs and the use of health services around the country.

85.   Miller said that he had asked the government for assistance with retiree health costs and taxes.

86.   Monk and other industry backers argue that giving doctors bonuses to control expenses helps drive down health costs for everybody.

87.   Minnesota attorneys and a tobacco industry lawyer are discussing whether to settle a lawsuit brought by the state to recoup health costs.

88.   Moreover, it reflects already planned, technical changes in the calculation of health costs and of the consumer price index.

89.   No Congress has grappled with the forces pushing health costs up and health coverage down.

90.   On the good side, the long-term rise in health costs has eased with the widespread adoption of managed care plans.