Utahns who think health-care costs are getting away from them have a new report to legitimize that belief.

A report released Monday by consumer health organization Families USA indicates that premiums for family health-care coverage provided through the workplace rose 7.3 times faster than earnings in Utah from 2000 to 2006.

Based on federal government data, the report said premiums rose 71.8 percent during that time, while median earnings grew by 9.9 percent.

"Other factors have also buffeted families' economic well-being, including fluctuating gasoline prices and the recent downturn in real estate markets, but nothing has caused as much damage to family pocketbooks as the confluence of stagnant wages and rising health-care costs," the report states.

Family health coverage annual premiums during that six-year period rose from $6,305 to $10,832, while median earnings of Utah's workers rose from $21,497 to $23,620, the report states.

The report said the premium increases occurred despite "thinner" coverage to workers — coverage with fewer benefits and/or higher deductibles, co-payments and co-insurance. "As a result, Utah families are paying more but receiving less in health-care coverage," the organization said.

The growing disparity between higher health-care costs and relatively stable wages is causing many Utahns to become uninsured or underinsured, the report said. About 16.6 percent of the non-elderly population — more than 376,000 — is uninsured, it said.

"Utah families have been hit hard in the pocketbooks due to skyrocketing health costs and stagnant wages," Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, said in a prepared statement. "As a result, Utahns are paying much larger portions of their paychecks on health care, and health care is becoming less and less affordable."

The report also said:

• Employer portions of annual premiums for family health coverage in Utah during the period rose from $4,861 to $7,810, or 60.7 percent.

• The worker portion of family health coverage premiums rose from $1,444 annually to $3,022, or 109.3 percent.

• Premiums for individual coverage were up from $2,585 to $3,667, or 41.8 percent, from 2000 to 2006.

• The employer portion of individual health coverage rose from $2,003 to $2,926, or 46.1 percent.

• The worker portion of annual premiums for individual health coverage increased from $582 per year to $741, or 27.3 percent.

The report said the higher health-care costs are causing more people to go into debt.

"If this trouble trend continues, the health-care affordability crisis will get much worse and many more Utahns will become uninsured and underinsured," Pollack said. "If earnings continue to lag behind fast-rising health-care costs, Utahns will face diminishing economic and health security. It is high time for national leaders to address this growing problem and make it a top national priority."

The Families USA report used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.