WASHINGTON — Increases in health insurance premiums for working households slowed for the third straight year in 2006, but still rose at a rate more than double that of inflation and growth in workers' pay, an annual nationwide survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds.

Premiums for workers rose 7.7 percent this year — the lowest increase since 2000 — down from 9.2 percent in 2005 and just over half the recent peak of 13.9 percent in 2003, according to the survey, which was released yesterday and included more than 3,000 companies with 3 or more workers. At the end of April, when the survey was completed, wages had increased 3.8 percent from a year earlier and the rate of inflation had increased 3.5 percent, the survey said.

"Nobody's celebrating, and nobody should be celebrating," said Drew Altman, head of the foundation, a nonprofit organization that studies healthcare issues. "A modest reduction in an already high rate of increase hardly looks like salvation to working people and businesses, who have been getting hammered by high healthcare costs year after year."

Since 2000, workers' health insurance premiums have risen a total of 84 percent, while their wages have increased 20 percent and inflation has risen 18 percent, according to the study, which was conducted in collaboration with the Health Research and Educational Trust, a nonprofit research affiliate of the American Hospital Association. Kaiser and HRET have collaborated on the study since 1999.

Annual healthcare insurance premiums for a family of four average $11,480 this year, with workers paying $2,973 of that, $1,354 more than six years ago, the study found. For individuals, premiums average $4,242, with the employee having to pay $627.

About 61 percent of the firms surveyed offer healthcare coverage to at least some employees, about the same as last year. And workers at bigger companies continued to fare better: The study found that while nearly all companies with 200 or more workers offered coverage, fewer than half the smallest companies (those with 3 to 9 workers) surveyed did.

Employees at firms with up to 199 workers tend to pay more out of pocket for premiums — $3,550 on average for family coverage — than workers at larger firms, who pay $2,658 on average for family coverage.

Healthcare has been a trouble spot for U.S. companies and workers for nearly two decades as escalating costs have forced many firms to choose between layoffs or cuts in benefits to stay competitive. As costs have risen, so have the number of uninsured Americans under the age of 65: At least 46 million in 2005, up by 6 million from 2000. About 81 percent of those are uninsured workers and their families, says Diane Rowland, the Kaiser Family Foundation's expert on the uninsured.

Uninsured people often cost the healthcare system more than their insured counterparts because they tend to wait until they are sicker before seeking help, requiring more expensive intervention than they might have needed if they had been treated earlier or been given preventive care. That drives up healthcare costs for everyone, Rowland said.