MINNEAPOLIS, April 30, 2008—A new study shows that employer-based health insurance premiums have increased at a rate that far exceeds the rate of American wage increases since 2000. 

In a study of government statistics made public by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Tuesday, the cost of health insurance to employees for family health coverage went up by 30 percent from 2001 to 2005.

Over that same period, wages went up by only 3 percent.

The report is a state-by-state analysis of insurance coverage costs relative to income from the State Health Access Data Assistance Center at the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health.

The 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.

In some parts of the country, the gap is greater than the average in the report. Residents of Oklahoma (up 50 percent) and  Idaho (up 43 percent) experienced higher than average premium increases.

Minnesota's health insurance costs rose 28 percent over the 2001-2005 period.

In 2007, national health care costs are estimated to have risen by 6.9 percent -- or two times the rate of inflation, according to the nonprofit National Coalition on Health Care.

Full report