Forbes -- Growth in Health Ins. Premiums Slows

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http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/heal...out527948.html

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 14 (HealthDay News) -- The rate of growth of health insurance premiums declined for the second year in a row, slowing to 9.2 percent in 2005.

But premiums are still significantly outpacing wages and inflation, according to the 2005 Annual Employer Health Benefits Survey, issued by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust.

Today, health insurance premiums for a family of four are just shy of $11,000 a year, or about equal to the full-time earnings of a minimum-wage worker.

"The 9.2 percent decline is lower than the last two years of rates of growth but it's still substantially above the other indicators in the economy such as growth and wages and inflation," said Gary Claxton, co-author of the survey and a vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington, D.C. "What we continue to see is that premiums are moving away from wages. It continues the questions we have about the affordability of coverage."

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I guess that's good news for those that benefited from Bush's "millionaire tax cuts"

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