Presidential candidates already are unveiling their plans for universal health care. Sen. Hillary Clinton's offering has acquired the moniker "Hillarycare II" - and, like some movies, the sequel is just as bad as the original. Like her 1993 plan, she still is touting bigger government, higher taxes and fewer consumer choices as the components to make it work.

John Edwards also has unveiled his universal plan, for what it's worth. It bears such a close resemblance to Clinton's, you might as well call it "Hillarycare III" - if not for the fact that he released his plan before she released hers.

Both plans lean even more on businesses when it comes to their employee health insurance - in a climate where businesses already are compelled to raise premiums or drop coverage altogether.

The Kaiser Family Foundation and The Health Research and Educational Trust - both nonprofit organizations dedicated to gathering and disseminating information about health care - have released their annual report on employer-sponsored health benefits in the United States.

The telephone survey conducted between January and May of this year, involving 3,078 randomly selected nonfederal public and private employers ranging in size from three employees to 300,000, found that:

-- Of the 301 million people in the United States, 158 million rely on employer-sponsored health insurance. (Deducting the 47 million uninsured, the remainder either pay for their own insurance or are insured through federal government programs.)

-- The average premium for family coverage in 2007 is $12,106, of which the employer pays 72 percent.

-- The average premium for single coverage is $4,479, of which the employer pays 84 percent. (Note that these figure are an average. In 20 percent of the companies surveyed, the employee paid nothing for coverage, so in most companies they paid significantly more.)

The positive news is that the growth in premiums continued to drop for the fourth consecutive year. These premiums rose an average of 6.1 percent in 2007, the lowest rate since 1999.

As most of us already know, the rest of the news is negative. The primary reasons for the drop is that fewer and fewer small firms are offering insurance, and every employer, large and small, is actively seeking ways to reduce this expense. In a tough business climate, businesses cut costs to survive - and insurance is a major cost. The survey found that, although few firms are planning to restrict or drop coverage, 21 percent say they are very likely to raise the employee's premium in 2008.

Things are going to change. In surveys on the issues in next year's presidential election, health care ranks right behind Iraq. Every candidate will have a plan, and these plans will in some form work their way into the parties' platforms - and from there into our lives.

These pre-election surveys also show that few of us are clear about the proposed solutions and how they will affect us. We have 13 months to rectify this.

And if any presidential candidate can come forward with some real, commonsense solutions on health care, let's hear them.