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Cost of employer health plans far outpaces wage growth

Coverage is going up 6 to 8 times faster than wages

WASHINGTON – American workers – whose taxes pay for massive government health programs – are getting squeezed like no other group by private health insurance premiums that are rising much faster than their wages.

While just about all retirees are covered, and nearly 90 percent of children have health insurance, workers now are at significantly higher risk of being uninsured than in the 1990s, the last time lawmakers attempted a health care overhaul, according to a study to be released Tuesday.

The study for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that nearly 1 in 5 workers is uninsured, a statistically significant increase from fewer than 1 in 7 during the mid-1990s.

The problem is cost. Total premiums for employer plans have risen six to eight times faster than wages, depending on whether individual or family coverage is picked, the study found.

“The thing I think is interesting is how many workers are newly uninsured,” said Lynn Blewett, director of the State Health Access Data Assistance Center at the University of Minnesota, which conducted the research. “In the last couple of years we’ve seen a deterioration of private health insurance.”

About 20.7 million workers were uninsured in the mid-1990s. A decade later, it was 26.9 million, an increase of about 6 million, the study found.

In the 1990s, there were eight states with 20 percent or more of the working age population uninsured. Now there are 14: Alaska, Arizona (22.6 % in 1994-95, increasing to 23.2% in 2006-07), Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina and Texas.

The study comes as the Obama administration is scrambling to maintain support for a health care overhaul this year in the face of record federal deficits. A program like President Obama’s, which would commit the nation to coverage for all, is estimated to cost about $1.5 trillion over 10 years. Yet the U.S. health care system, already the world’s costliest, is also considered one of the most wasteful.

If anything, the situation for workers appears to be worse than is reflected in the report. It analyzed Census data through 2007, the latest year available. But that before the economy tumbled into recession.

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STATE BY STATE

A state-by-state glance of the percentage of uninsured workers ages 19 to 64 in 2006-07 and in 1994-95:

State 2006-07 1994-95

Ala. 17.0 17.8

Alaska 21.2 13.6

Ariz. 23.2 22.6

Ark. 23.8 19.2

Calif. 22.4 22.2

Colo. 19.2 13.9

Conn. 11.8 9.2

Del. 13.1 14.9

D.C. 11.3 16.4

Fla. 25.2 21.1

Ga. 20.5 18.3

Hawaii 9.0 9.0

Idaho 18.9 16.5

Ill. 16.0 11.6

Ind. 14.6 12.1

Iowa 12.4 10.6

Kan. 16.6 15.0

Ky. 18.1 15.7

La. 26.8 21.1

Maine 12.8 15.2

Md. 15.8 14.6

Mass. 9.4 11.9

Mich. 13.6 10.9

Minn. 10.2 10.1

Miss. 21.4 20.2

Mo. 15.8 14.1

Mont. 19.5 17.1

Neb. 14.7 10.4

Nev. 19.8 17.7

N.H. 13.5 11.2

N.J. 17.4 14.0

N.M. 28.1 25.9

N.Y. 16.8 16.4

N.C. 20.1 14.7

N.D. 12.9 9.6

Ohio 12.9 12.3

Okla. 22.6 20.1

Ore. 21.0 13.8

Pa. 11.0 10.6

R.I. 11.8 13.3

S.C. 20.1 14.6

S.D. 13.3 12.2

Tenn. 17.6 12.7

Texas 28.0 24.2

Utah 16.0 13.0

Vt. 13.1 12.6

Va. 15.8 13.5

Wash. 14.7 15.2

W.Va. 19.2 18.7

Wis. 10.1 9.3

Wyo. 18.3 16.4

U.S. 18.4 16.1

Source: State Health Access Data Assistance Center at the University of Minnesota, U.S. Census Bureau

Citizen Online Archive, 2006-2009

This archive contains all the stories that appeared on the Tucson Citizen's website from mid-2006 to June 1, 2009.

In 2010, a power surge fried a server that contained all of videos linked to dozens of stories in this archive. Also, a server that contained all of the databases for dozens of stories was accidentally erased, so all of those links are broken as well. However, all of the text and photos that accompanied some stories have been preserved.

For all of the stories that were archived by the Tucson Citizen newspaper's library in a digital archive between 1993 and 2009, go to Morgue Part 2

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