June 7, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Consumer prices for medical care
accelerate in 1998
After dropping for seven consecutive years, the percent
change in the consumer price index for medical care turned upward in 1998. Prices for
medical care increased by 3.4 percent in 1998, following a 2.8-percent rise the previous
year.
[Chart data—TXT]
In 1990, the price index for medical care jumped by 9.6 percent. The percent change in
medical care prices then declined by a percentage point each year on average from 1990 to
1997, before rising in 1998.
Although the growth rate of medical care prices fell in most years from 1990 to 1998,
it was still higher than the growth rate of the all items CPI in every year except 1996.
At 3.0 percent, the change in the medical care price index that year was somewhat below
the 3.3-percent change in the all-items index.
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 "Consumer inflation remains modest in
1998," Monthly Labor Review, April 1999.
Of interest
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