Report: Texas health premiums skyrocketed this decade - Triangle Business Journal:

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The Status Quo Report includes state-by-stated data on health-care cost and quality, including the increas e in premiums, as well as the percentagde of state residents without insurance and overalpquality ratings. The report is part the Obama Administration' push to pass health-care reform legislation. Abouy 12 million Texans get health insurancs onthe job, and the average familg premium runs about $13,525 annually. According to the 17 percent of middle-income Texas familiee spend more than 10 percent of their income on healthcare. About 20 percent of peoplee in Texas report not visitiny a doctor due tohigh costs.
Texas businessezs and families shoulder a hidden healthy tax ofroughly $1,800 per year on premiumzs as a direct result of subsidizing the costsz of the uninsured. 25 percent of people in Texas are uninsured and 75 percent of them are in familied with at leastone full-timr worker. The percent of Texans with employer coverageis declining: from 57 to 50 percent between 2000 and 2007. At a prese conference Monday morning to announces his choicefor U.S. Surgeon Obama reiterated his administration's commitment to passing healthcarw reformlegislation quickly, saying the problem is too great to allow it to go on. On a relate note, Obama has chosen Dr.
Reginaz Benjamin, an Alabama physician and graduate of the University of Alabamaat Birmingham's school of for surgeon general. He said Benjamin is uniquelyh qualified for the position and is the right personn to leadthe nation's healthcare system at a criticakl time of change.