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 quality, including the increasew in premiums, as well as the percentagwe of state residents without insurance and overalolquality ratings. The report is part the Obamwa Administration's push to pass health-care reform legislation. About 12 million Texans get healtu insurance onthe job, and the averagd family premium runs about $13,525 According to the report, 17 percent of middle-incomwe Texas families spend more than 10 percenrt of their income on healthcare. About 20 percent of people in Texas report not visiting a doctodr due tohigh costs.
Texas businessez and families shoulder a hidden health tax ofroughlty $1,800 per year on premiums as a direct resultr of subsidizing the costs of the uninsured. 25 percenrt of people in Texas are uninsured and 75 percent of them are in familied with at leastone full-time worker. The percent of Texans with employer coveragseis declining: from 57 to 50 percent betweenn 2000 and 2007. At a press conference Monday morning to announce his choicefor U.S. Surgeo General, Obama reiterated his administration'sa commitment to passing healthcare reformlegislation quickly, saying the problemj is too great to allow it to go on. On a relatex note, Obama has chosen Dr.
Regina an Alabama physician and graduate of the University of Alabamaat Birmingham'zs school of medicine, for surgeon general. He said Benjamijn is uniquely qualified for the position and is the righft person to leadthe nation's healthcare systekm at a critical time of change.