Two recent news stories point out that with or without the health care reform law health care in the United States still needs to be reformed.

The first story concludes that, if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down President Barack Obamas reform law, employers will take it upon themselves to make their own reforms.

What that means is employers will continue to seek lower-cost health insurance plans and ways to shift costs to their employees.

The plans that employers will offer will cost employees more in premiums, deductibles and co-pays, while covering less of the cost of care. In particular, more employers will move to high-deductible plans.

Some may provide accounts that cover all or part of an employees deductible, but employer funding of those accounts is becoming less common.

Monetary penalties for smokers will expand to include the overweight and those with troublesome scores on cholesterol and other tests.

The second story is about a study that showed more people, in Wisconsin and around the nation, are forgoing health care they need because it costs too much.

In Wisconsin, 13 percent said they didnt get care because of the cost in 2010, up from 8.5 percent in 2000.

In the nation, the figure was 18.7 percent in 2010, up from 12.7 percent in 2000.

The sum of the stories is that health care with or without the current reform law will cost people more, sometimes much more.

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Health care still needs reform