The news could be worse: With South Florida mired in a recession, many employers appear reluctant to pass too much of their rising healthcare costs along to their workers.

Large employers say they expect workers' share of the premiums to go up about 6 percent to 8 percent next year. That may be more than the employees will see in pay increases. But in this open enrollment season -- the time when many consumers must choose their health insurance for next year -- that sounds a lot better than the news five or six years ago, when many employees were hammered with 15 percent to 40 percent annual increases.

It would be easy for squeezed companies to shift more of their costs to employees with higher deductibles and co-pays, but ''a lot more employers are becoming sensitive [about] passing along costs at all next year,'' says Bruce Shanefield, a senior vice president with Aon Consulting in Miami. ``Overall, it's not happening.''

Large companies may be laying off people, says Shanefield, but managers realize that with high housing, food and gas prices, employees already are stretched thin.

And at least some small employers are continuing to offer coverage without changes.

''Our policy stays the same,'' says Mario Galindo of Daily Freight International Services, which employs 28 people at its facility west of Miami International Airport. ``Things are tough, and it's kind of unfair to take this away. But you do measure a little more whether that person is worth the money before you hire them.''

Experts say healthcare costs have moderated because of a combination of programs, including higher co-pays to get employees involved in their own costs and disease management programs for control of chronic ailments such as diabetes.

The experience of the Greenberg Traurig law firm seems to be fairly typical. Chief Executive Cesar Alvarez says the firm expects costs to go up 8 percent next year as it continues to emphasize prevention, with annual physicals and tests being provided at little or no cost to employees.

Nationwide, Aon Consulting expects healthcare costs to increase a little more than 10 percent next year, but the increases are likely to be less locally, says Shanefield, at least partly because employers facing such a hike likely would scale back benefits to cut expenses.

Still, that doesn't mean life is easy for consumers who must make tough choices on healthcare when their budgets are squeezed in many directions.

Consider Jody Finver, of Coconut Grove. After losing her job, she went on COBRA, the federally mandated program that allows employees to keep their company healthcare plan for up to 18 months if they paying the full cost of the premium. Finver had to pay $392 a month out of pocket, but she thought it was well worth it because she has Crohn's disease, which attacks the digestive system and can be both debilitating and expensive.

She knew that after COBRA ran out, the insurance company had to offer her a conversion policy, but she couldn't find out out how much it would cost. ''Nobody really wants people to convert,'' says Finver, because consumers who do so are likely to be those with major medical expenses. ``So they don't help you at all.''

During open enrollment, she ''felt like a little mouse in a maze.'' She phoned insurers and spent hours on hold, learning little, and made many more calls searching for a broker to help her. Eventually, she learned that a Florida law requires a ''group of one'' policy for the self-employed, and that's what she went for -- at $582 a month.

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