.floatimg-left-hort { float:left; } .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 12px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Family health care premiums rose 3.2 times faster than median earnings for Iowa’s workers from 2000 through 2009, according to a report issued last week by the consumer health organization Families USA. In that 10-year period, family health premiums increased 79.4 percent, while median earnings grew by only 24.5 percent.

Among the report’s key findings:

• For family health coverage provided through the workplace in Iowa, the average annual health insurance premium (employer and worker share of premiums combined) in the 2000-2009 period increased to $11,637 from $6,487 – an increase of $5,150, or 79.4 percent.

• During the same period, the median earnings of Iowa’s workers increased to $27,566 from $22,147 – an increase of $5,419, or 24.5 percent.

The report is based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The increases in insurance premiums have continued despite employees receiving “thinner” coverage that provides fewer benefits and higher deductibles, co-payments and co-insurance. Other employers have cut costs by placing limits on which employees are eligible for coverage or by eliminating coverage for spouses and children of employees. As a result, Iowa families are paying more but receiving less in health coverage, the report said.

“Rising health care costs threaten the financial well-being of families in Iowa and across the nation,” said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. “If health care reform does not happen soon, more and more families will be priced out of the health coverage they used to take for granted.”

Families USA, founded in 1982, describes itself as a “national nonprofit, non-partisan organization dedicated to the achievement of high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.”