While Democrats reconsider their options to pass healthcare reform legislation in the wake of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown's election to the Senate, others are counting the costs of the current Senate bill that is expected to be at the heart of that effort, CFO.com reports. Should that Senate bill pass unmodified and become law, the cost of employer-provided healthcare for large companies would shoot up an additional 7% to 10% per year (beyond current increases) over the next decade, for a grand total of between $62.7 billion and $89.2 billion, estimates the HR Policy Assn., a group of human-resource executives at the country's largest 300 or so firms.
