Health costs worry Minnesota manufacturers

A survey of Minnesota's manufacturing executives shows that the cost of healthcare is one of their top concerns.

Since 2008, the trade group Enterprise Minnesota has conducted a yearly survey of 400 manufacturers about their confidence in the future.

The percentage of respondents citing health care as their top concern peaked in 2011, the year after Congress passed the federal health care overhaul. However, it continues to be a major worry.

Rob Autry conducts the poll. He says nearly 70 percent of manufacturers surveyed expect health care costs to rise in the next 2-3 years.

"You mix that with uncertainty about what's going on in Washington and I think it's enough to give them pause."

However, 82 percent of survey respondents still expressed confidence about the future of their own company this year, unchanged from 2012.

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