Health Insurance Premiums Skyrocket

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Similarly, the NCHC indicates that in 2007, employer health insurance premiums also rose at twice the rate of inflation -- by 6.1 percent.

The RWJF report is based on data drawn from the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys, conducted between 2001 and 2005. SHADAC researchers also crunched numbers from U.S. Census Bureau information collected between 2001 and 2007.

The study's premium-to-income comparisons demonstrate that employees with health coverage are not, in fact, paying a greater proportion of their total family premiums since 2000 -- with employees continuing to carry a 24 percent burden of the full cost.

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However, the report indicates that between 2001 and 2005, there was a 30 percent national rise in what employees must now pay for family coverage -- translating into an additional average yearly out-of-pocket expense of $664. In total, the average employee must now shell out $2,585 for family coverage.

Residents of some states actually experienced higher than average premium increases, with the hardest hit states being Oklahoma, Idaho, Texas, Oregon and Pennsylvania.

By contrast, the average income among Americans carrying family policies went up just 3 percent --or about $1,250 -- in the same timeframe.

Employers, meanwhile, have seen their out-of-pocket share per family policy rise 28 percent, to a 2005 average of $8,143. The result: 30,000 fewer employers offered their workers health coverage in 2005 than in 2001, translating into more than 4 million fewer private-sector workers with jobs that offer health benefits.

"We're not trying to point the finger at anybody," said Berman. "Employers are paying more, employees are paying more, and costs are out of control for everybody. So we all need reform, to address costs and also to increase coverage. Because now, one in six Americans are uninsured, which ultimately places a greater burden on all of us."

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