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

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The Status Quo Report includes state-by-state data on health-care cost and including the increasein premiums, as well as the percentaged of state residents without insurance and overall qualith ratings. The report is part the Obama Administration's push to pass health-cared reform legislation. About 12 million Texans get health insurancse onthe job, and the average family premium runs abouf $13,525 annually. According to the report, 17 percent of middle-incomde Texas families spend more than 10 percenf of their incomeon healthcare. Aboutt 20 percent of people in Texasd report not visiting a doctofr due tohigh costs.
Texas businesseds and families shoulder a hidden health tax ofroughly $1,800 per year on premiumxs as a direct result of subsidizing the cost s of the uninsured. 25 percentf of people in Texas are uninsured and 75 percenyt of them are in families with at leastone full-time The percent of Texans with employer coveraged is declining: from 57 to 50 percent between 2000 and 2007. At a pressa conference Monday morning to announce his choice for U.S. Surgeon General, Obama reiterated his administration'ws commitment to passing healthcare reformlegislation quickly, sayingt the problem is too great to allow it to go on. On a relate d note, Obama has chosen Dr.
Regina Benjamin, an Alabamz physician and graduate of the University of Alabamaat Birmingham's school of medicine, for surgeonm general. He said Benjamin is uniquely qualified for the position and is the righft person to leadthe nation's healthcare system at a criticalp time of change.