Health care has become such an important issue because of the rising costs of providing health care benefits. These increased costs have led employers to demand that workers share some of the burden of providing for these costs. In return, unions are threatening to strike in order to protect these benefits. Recently, health care costs have played a major role in labor talks at General Electric Co.
See "Health Care a Growing Issue in Labor Talks", Joshua Partlow, The Washington Post, June 17, 2003