October 17, 2006
In Ohio - Earnings Grow Slower Than Health Care Premiums
From the Dayton Daily News:
The amount Ohio workers and employers must pay for family health insurance premiums has risen 73.3 percent over the six years, about the same as the national average. Individual premiums in Ohio have increased 73.8 percent, more than the national average of 64.1 percent.
The average median income in Ohio, meanwhile, went up only 8.7 percent during the same period — shy of the national earnings increase of 11.6 percent, Families USA found using U.S. Census, Labor Department and Health and Human Services data.
This provides a little insight as to why so many Clevelanders are without insurance. From Planning & Action:
About one in four working-age adults on Cleveland’s east side had no insurance, compared to fewer than one-fifth on the city’s west side.