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Starbucks CEO: Health costs out of control

WASHINGTON - Starbucks Corp. will spend more on health insurance for its employees this year than on raw materials needed to brew its coffee, the company's chairman said Wednesday.

Howard Schultz, whose Seattle company provides health care coverage to employees who work at least 20 hours a week, said Starbucks has faced double-digit increases in insurance costs each of the past four years.

Schultz made the comments Wednesday at a meeting with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash. The event was one of several organized by Schultz and other executives to call attention to what they called a growing health care crisis.

"I would hope congressional leaders put this at the front of their agenda," said Schultz, noting that most of the estimated 45-million uninsured Americans have jobs.

Meanwhile, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported Wednesday that the growth rate of health insurance premiums failed to reach double digits this year, the first time that has happened since 2000.

Still, premiums rose much faster than inflation and wage growth, the report said.

[Last modified September 15, 2005, 01:05:21]