Harvard Pilgrim HealthCare CEO tells employers: Let workers help choose plan.

Byline: Robin Lord

Dec. 11--Double-digit increases in health-insurance premiums will continue unless employers do more to involve workers in the process of choosing a health plan, says the top executive of Harvard Pilgrim HealthCare.

The most common response by business owners to rising health-insurance costs is to shift the increase to employees, Charles Baker, CEO of Harvard Pilgrim told members of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce at a breakfast meeting in Hyannis yesterday.

As a result, in the four years from 2000 to 2004, the average worker's share of a family's insurance went from $1,620 to $2,700 -- a 67 percent increase, he said.

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