Health care costs are expected to rise more than 10 percent into next year, according to a survey of insurers by Aon Consulting Worldwide.

But that increase is the smallest Aon has seen in six years. Experts say it shows that efforts to tame costs, such as employee wellness or disease management programs, may be paying off.

"There's a variety of tactics that employers have been employing over the last 3 to 6 years that has had an impact on the market," said study director Bill Sharon, an Aon Consulting senior vice president.

Aon Consulting surveyed about 70 health insurers around the country, including companies such as Aetna Inc. and Cigna Corp. It found that actuaries expect costs to rise an average of 10.6 percent during 12-month rating periods starting this year between April and September.

That represents a slight drop from last year's forecast of 10.9 percent and a bigger fall from 2002, when health care costs were expected to rise by more than 16 percent.

But the percentage likely won't be what the average employee faces for a premium hike next year. It doesn't reflect insurance plan designs or changes an employer might make to benefits plans.

"Pretty much every employer has to do something or is doing something in an effort to bring that number down," Sharon said.

He said actual cost increases have wound up being three to four percentage points lower than preliminary

WASHINGTON (AP) -- More banks are tightening lending standards on home mortgages and other consumer and business loans as a deepening credit crisis exerts a heavier toll on the economy.

The Federal Reserve said Monday the percentage of banks reporting tighter lending standards rose across various loan types in its July survey. In April, the central bank had found that the percentage of banks reporting tighter lending standards was already near historic highs.

The new survey, conducted in early July, found that about 75 percent of the banks surveyed indicated they had tightened their lending standards for prime mortgages. That was up from about 60 percent of banks who said they were tightening lending standards for prime mortgages in the previous survey.

The Fed's July survey covered 50 banks which hold about 80 percent of the residential mortgages on the books of all commercial banks.

Out of this group of 50 banks, 32 said they were still originating so-called nontraditional home mortgages. Among these 32 banks, about 85 percent said they had tightened their lending standards, up from 75 percent who said they were tightening lending standards for nontraditional mortgages in the April survey.

The Fed defines nontraditional mortgages as adjustable-rate mortgages with multiple payment options,

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices finished at a new three-month low Monday after briefly dropping below $113 a barrel mark, as the dollar extended its rebound and more signs emerged that China's energy demand could be leveling off.

In earlier trading, oil fluctuated as traders monitored the conflict between Russia and Georgia that some believe could disrupt supplies. But those worries faded to the background as the dollar's recovery accelerated, and as the energy market focused on a report from China that the country's crude oil imports in July were down 7 percent from last year.

"Now we're focused on the weak demand side of the equation," said Phil Flynn, analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago. "There was this thought process that the high price of energy didn't matter to China and other countries -- but we're finding that that's not the case."

After falling nearly $10 a barrel last week, light, sweet crude for September delivery fell another 75 cents to settle at $114.45 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the lowest close since May 1.

Crude, which fell as low as $112.72 a barrel during the session, has been plummeting in recent weeks from its record of $147.27 on July 11.

"The market's still kind of reeling," said Darin Newsom, senior analyst at DTN in Omaha, Neb. He said more signs of economic slowdown could take prices back below $100 a barrel -- a level not seen since early

The cocktail chatter among my friends has taken a surprising turn in the past year or two. We're not gushing over rising home values or fad stocks anymore - and not just because there aren't any to gush about lately.

Many of us have begun to look around the next corner in our lives, focusing less on accumulating assets than on when to start drawing them down. Making the transition especially sticky, few husbands and wives among the dual-income couples I know expect to turn in their briefcases at the same time.

In that, my circle is not so unusual. Fewer than one in five couples retire in the same year, according to the Center for Retirement Research; in half of two-earner families, one spouse is still working more than two years after the other has quit for good. And split retirements will no doubt be even more common among boomers because there are simply so many more working women among us.

Retiring at different times raises a lot of thorny financial issues: How do you live on one salary when you've been used to two, without tapping too much of your nest egg too early? If the retired spouse takes Social Security, how will that affect the benefits of the one still working?

Then there are the challenges that transcend money. Among them: Since we boomers get so much of our self-esteem (and our social lives) from our jobs, how will your relationship fare when one of you stays in