Growth in medical care prices in 2006 continued at the moderate pace of the last several years. The medical care component of the consumer price index (CPI) rose 4.0% last year (Table 1). That is slightly under the average annual increase over the five-year (2002–2006) reference period, during which year-to-year increases varied within the 4.0% to 4.7% range and stands in contrast to earlier times when consumers were buffeted by much higher price levels and larger price swings (Figure 1). Medical care was one of four of the eight major components of the CPI to have experienced a decrease in price inflation in 2006 compared with 2005. The CPI data in this report are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
