By Don Mecoy
Business Writer

The average cost of Oklahoma families' insurance premiums jumped 50 percent from 2001 to 2005, while those families' median income rose just 5 percent over the same period.

Oklahoma registered the largest increase in health insurance costs among the 50 states during the four-year period, according to the report issued Tuesday by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation in conjunction with "Cover the Uninsured Week."

"If it's a race to the bottom, we're winning, I'm afraid," state Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland said.

Holland said the figures are an outgrowth of Oklahoma's longstanding high number of residents who have no medical insurance and the state's relatively low median income.

About 21 percent of Oklahomans have no health insurance. In 2005, Oklahoma's median income was more than 7 percent below the national level.

Struggling to make ends meet

Many Oklahomans work for small businesses that are shifting more health insurance costs to employees, whose paychecks are not keeping up with inflation, Holland said. "We're just seeing a downward spiral of costs going up, which is causing more people or business to drop coverage," she said.

David Blatt, director of policy for the Oklahoma Policy Institute, said the numbers are another demonstration of why so many Oklahomans are struggling to make ends meet. "The most sobering aspect of this is to compare the substantial growth in health insurance costs and other needs to relatively flat wage growth," Blatt said. "This is why an increasing number of Oklahomans are feeling pinched."

Oklahoma, Holland said, must find ways to make health insurance available to more residents.

"We have to create a mechanism by which people can get coverage and pay for their medical expenses," Holland said. "Get them coverage so they get adequate preventative and chronic care and treatment. That will prevent people from ending up in emergency rooms in very serious conditions."

Oklahomans spend about $18 billion annually on medical care, Holland said. "That seems like a lot of money to me. I have to believe we can distribute that more effectively." Insurance industry officials, lawmakers, regulators, consumer advocates and residents must work together to find ways to improve the state's health insurance situation, Holland said.

Blatt said many Oklahomans have experienced little benefit of the state's recent economic strength driven by soaring energy prices.

While Oklahoma thus far has been able to avoid the national economic slowdown due to local strength in energy and housing, some residents will be especially hard hit if those doldrums spread here, Blatt said.

"There is a significant segment of population that really is already struggling to get by week-to-week, month-to-month, and it is going to be particularly difficult if the downturn hits Oklahoma considering the budget situation where we're already seeing revenues decline and falling funding," he said. "How are we going to take care of those most in need of assistance if we do see the downturn here?"

More findings

• Fewer employees are working in private-sector jobs that offer insurance. Nationally, 4.1 million fewer people worked in private-sector jobs that offered health insurance in 2005 than in 2001. In Oklahoma, 63,700 fewer people worked in private-sector jobs that offered health insurance in 2005, compared to 2001.
• Fewer private-sector businesses offer coverage. The number of private-sector employers nationwide who offered health insurance benefits to their employees fell by 30,000 from 2001 to 2005. In Oklahoma, the number of private-sector employers who offered health insurance benefits to their employees increased by about 1,400 establishments from 2001 to 2005.
• Fewer people have private health insurance coverage. Americans with private health insurance fell nearly 2.4 million, or 6 percent, from 2001 to 2005. In Oklahoma, the number of people with private insurance coverage fell about 6 percent between 2001 and 2005.
• More people are uninsured. According to the latest Census figures, 47 million Americans do not have any health insurance. In Oklahoma, about 640,000 residents are uninsured.

Link to Full article on Oklahoman website