Massachusetts is once again the most expensive state in the nation to buy health insurance, according to a new study that draws a sobering portrait of the damage that rising medical premiums are doing to businesses and families.

The report released today by the non-profit Commonwealth Fund finds that Massachusetts checked in with the highest average cost for a family health insurance premium during 2011 - $16,953. Average premiums in the five highest states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, District of Columbia, New York and Vermont were 30 percent above premiums in the lowest-cost states.