June 26, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Medical care inflation up in 1999
Prices for medical
care increased by 3.7 percent in 1999, following a 3.4-percent rise the
previous year and a 2.8 percent increase in 1997.
![Annual change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, medical care and all items, 1990-99](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120925063955im_/http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/images/2000/Jun/wk4/art01.gif)
[Chart data—TXT]
Prescription drugs and medical supplies charges rose 6.1 percent in
1999,
compared with 4.9 percent in 1998. In recent years, there has been a large
increase in demand for prescription drugs, in part due to the increased
advertising by pharmaceutical companies directly to consumers.
The hospital services index rose 5.1 percent in 1999 and dental
services charges were up 4.6 percent. Physician’s fees increased by just
2.6 percent, about the same as the increase in the all items CPI (2.7
percent).
These data are produced by the BLS Consumer
Price Index program. Annual percent
changes are December-to-December changes. Details on the calculation of
the medical care CPI are in Measuring
Price Change for Medical Care in the CPI.
More information on consumer price changes can be found in "Core
consumer prices in 1999: low by historical standards,"
by Todd Wilson, Monthly Labor Review, April 2000.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
.
Read more »