Chart of the Day: A Record Jump in Health Insurance Prices
Health Care

Chart of the Day: A Record Jump in Health Insurance Prices

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Inflation appears to be edging higher. The consumer price index, a closely watched measure of inflation, rose 0.1% last month and 1.7% year-over-year, the Labor Department said Thursday.

But that slow rise was due in part to weak gas and energy prices that masked a larger acceleration in inflation elsewhere. The core index, which strips out food and energy prices, rose 0.3% and was up 2.4% from a year earlier. The last time the core inflation reading was higher was in 2008, Marketwatch’s Jeffry Bartash notes.

“The core reading reflected the biggest monthly rise in medical-care costs since 2016 and record increases in health-insurance prices,” Bloomberg’s Jeff Kearns and Reade Pickert report. The Bloomberg chart below shows just how dramatic the rise has been.

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