New Report Highlights Growing Gap Between Incomes and Health Care Costs

Underscores unacceptability of status-quo, reinforces urgent need for health reform

New Haven, CT – Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-3) reiterated the urgent need for health care reform as a new report showing family health care premiums rose almost 7.4 times faster than earnings for Connecticut's workers between 2000 and 2009 was released by Families USA. Further, the report, "Costly Coverage: Premiums Outpace Paychecks In Connecticut," found that in the 10-year period, family health insurance premiums rose by 95.9 percent, while median earnings rose by only 13.0 percent.

"The findings in this report could not be clearer about the widening gulf between family incomes and the soaring cost of health care," DeLauro said during the conference call focusing on the new report. "Unfortunately, these findings are not just hypothetical. Last month Anthem – the biggest insurance company in Connecticut with 55 percent of the market – requested up to a 32 percent rate increase on individual insurance policies, which will affect 55,000 Connecticut residents."

The report demonstrates the disparity between health care premiums and worker earnings. For family health coverage provided through the workplace in Connecticut, the average annual health insurance premium (employer and worker share of premiums combined) in the 2000-2009 period rose from $7,292 to $14,282—an increase of $6,990, or 95.9 percent. Yet between 2000 and 2009, the median earnings of Connecticut's workers rose from $32,106 to $36,276—an increase of $4,170, or 13.0 percent.

"Given this shameful and unacceptable state of affairs, I am pleased that the House of Representatives is poised to pass real health insurance reform that will benefit all of Connecticut's families – whether they currently have coverage or not," DeLauro continued. "The alternative to health insurance reform is more of the same – out of control costs, cancers that go undetected, pain that goes untreated, bills that get paid slowly, painfully, ten dollars a month, for the rest of people's lives"

The health care reform legislation, the America's Affordable Health Choices Act, will bring much-needed financial security for families in Connecticut. For those happy with the health insurance they have, nothing in the bill will force them to change their insurance. Importantly, the bill will: offer stable coverage that cannot be taken away; stabilize costs, so they will no longer erode the family paycheck; and secure stable, quality care that keeps what works in health care and improves what does not.

DeLauro concluded. "This report proves that the status quo cannot hold, and that rising health costs are inextricably linked to the dire financial straits families are facing. We need to stop punting on this crucial issue, and finally tackle the high health care costs that are making the whole system unsustainable. And we have a responsibility as a nation to ensure that all Americans have access to quality, affordable health care – regardless of the size of their paycheck. The time is now, and we cannot – must not – fail."