Family health insurance costs outpace Texas wages, nonprofit finds

Associated Press

Family health care premiums rose about 4 ½ times as fast as earnings for Texas workers from 2000 through 2009, according to a report released Tuesday by a consumer advocacy group.

Families USA, a Washington-based nonprofit, said that family health insurance premiums rose by about 92 percent while median earnings rose by about 20 percent during the 10-year period.

"Rising health care costs threaten the financial well-being of families across the country," Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, said in a conference call.

The report is based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Nationally, family health insurance premiums rose almost five times as fast as earnings, said Kim Bailey, a senior health policy analyst for Families USA.

The nonpartisan group says the average annual health insurance premium in Texas in the 2000-09 period for family health coverage provided in the workplace rose from $6,638 to $12,721.

At the same time, Texas workers' median earnings rose from about $23,032 to about $27,573.

"If health care reform does not happen soon, more and more families will be priced out of the health coverage they used to take for granted," Pollack said in a news release.

The news release said that between 2000 and 2008, the percentage of companies across the nation offering health coverage declined by 6 percentage points.

It also noted that the increases in premiums have continued despite coverage offering fewer benefits or having higher deductibles.