Medical Care Prices Up 1.6% in the Year to August 2026: Medical Debt and Healthcare Costs
Medical care prices were 1.6% higher than a year earlier in August 2026, down from a 12-month change of 3.5% in August 2025, by our calculation from the seasonally adjusted U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Medical Care CPI. Prescription drug prices were 2.9% lower than a year earlier. Four measures from BLS, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau cover prices, public coverage and collections separately.
How Fast Are Healthcare Costs Rising?
Medical care prices were 1.6% higher than a year earlier in August 2026, down from a 12-month change of 3.5% in August 2025, according to American Default's calculation from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' seasonally adjusted Medical Care CPI (series CUSR0000SAM). On our seasonally adjusted basis, that is the lowest 12-month change since February 2024. BLS headlines the 12-month change from the unadjusted index, which can differ slightly. In 2019 the rate averaged 2.8%.
In the 12 months to August 2026, medical care price growth trailed all-items price growth by 1.8 percentage points. The gap is down from 0.5 percentage points in August 2025. That gap is our subtraction of two BLS rates; it measures price growth only and says nothing about why the two rates differ. The cost-of-living statistics page tracks healthcare alongside other expense categories. For separately sourced household measures, see household financial health statistics.
Key Statistics at a Glance
The American Distress Index currently reads 47.0 (Typical). The composite itself sits higher than 44% of all published quarters since 2005. Medical care prices, Medicaid enrollment, medical collections and bankruptcy filing data describe separate populations and do not establish one household's path from one measure to another.
How Fast Are Healthcare Costs Rising vs. Overall Inflation?
The Medical Care CPI (seasonally adjusted series CUSR0000SAM) measures price change for medical care services, such as professional services, hospital services and health insurance, and for medical care commodities such as prescription drugs. BLS prices health insurance indirectly rather than from premiums, and each price is the total paid to the provider, including what insurers and Medicare pay. In August 2026 medical care prices were 1.6% higher than a year earlier. On our seasonally adjusted basis, that is the lowest 12-month change since February 2024. During 2021–2023 the rate reached 6.0% in September 2022.
In the 12 months to August 2026, medical care price growth trailed all-items price growth by 1.8 percentage points. Whether medical care outpaces the all-items index depends on the month; the gap has been below zero in several stretches since 2001, including 2005, 2008, 2011 and 2017–2019. BLS gives no cause for the gap's sign or size, and neither index measures what a particular household paid.
Medical Care CPI vs. Overall CPI (Year-over-Year, %)
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, seasonally adjusted Medical Care CPI (CUSR0000SAM) and All Items CPI (CPIAUCSL, recovered from the stored gap). 12-month changes calculated by American Default. Monthly.
Full data and trend: Medical Care CPI indicator page
How Does the Gap Between Medical and Overall Inflation Move?
The healthcare inflation premium is the Medical Care CPI 12-month rate minus the all-items rate, in percentage points; "premium" here means that gap, not an insurance premium. A positive value means medical care prices rose faster than the all-items index. In August 2026 the gap read −1.8 percentage points. The gap is down from 0.5 percentage points in August 2025. It is the lowest reading since January 2024.
Two closed windows show its range: its highest reading in 2008–2010 was +5.2 percentage points (July 2009), and its lowest reading in 2021–2023 was −5.7 percentage points (March 2022). Comparisons across October 2023 and October 2024 span BLS method changes for health insurance and for some physician and hospital prices.
Healthcare Inflation Premium (Medical CPI minus Overall CPI, percentage points)
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (computed from seasonally adjusted series CUSR0000SAM minus CPIAUCSL). Monthly.
Full data and trend: Healthcare inflation premium indicator page
Are Prescription Drug Prices Coming Down?
In August 2026, prescription drug prices were 2.9% lower than a year earlier, down from a 12-month change of 0.9% in August 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index for prescription drugs. The 12-month change has been below its year-earlier level for eight months in a row. BLS has published prescription drug prices not seasonally adjusted since its 2022 review. Our series, CUSR0000SEMF01, matches the unadjusted index from January 2017 on; its values before 2017 are seasonally adjusted. From 2001 through 2016 the 12-month rate averaged 3.6%, and in 2019 it averaged -0.2%. BLS changed the index formula in 2016, so comparisons with earlier years span a method change.
Negotiated Medicare prices for 10 Part D drugs took effect on January 1, 2026. BLS does not attribute the index's moves to any cause, and the index mixes cash, commercial and Part D prescriptions, so the timing alone does not show what drove a change. The price BLS tracks is the total the pharmacy receives, the patient's copay plus what the insurer or plan pays, so it is not what a patient pays at the counter, and manufacturer rebates are not subtracted. Prescriptions paid by Medicaid and drugs given in hospitals are outside the index. The wider medical basket is tracked by the Medical Care CPI.
Prescription Drug CPI Year-over-Year Change (Monthly, %)
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index — Prescription Drugs, series CUSR0000SEMF01 (unadjusted index values from January 2017; seasonally adjusted before 2017). 12-month percent change, monthly.
Full data and trend: Prescription Drug CPI indicator page
How Many People Are Enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP?
CMS counted 73.2 million people enrolled in Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program in June 2026, 4.6 million fewer than a year earlier, according to counts the 50 states and DC report to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. It counts everyone with comprehensive benefits on the last day of the month, not new sign-ups. During the pandemic, states that took extra federal Medicaid funding could not end coverage for most enrollees. That continuous enrollment condition ended on March 31, 2023, and states then resumed regular eligibility renewals, a process often called the unwinding.
The count shows how many people are enrolled, not what happened to those who left. A change from one month to the next is a net figure: people who left minus people who joined or came back. Counts of people disenrolled at renewal, such as KFF's, measure something else and cannot be read from this total. CMS says preliminary and updated figures should not be compared with each other, so every reading in the chart is CMS's preliminary total, and each month is compared with the same month a year earlier.
Medicaid/CHIP Enrollment (Millions)
Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Medicaid and CHIP Performance Indicator data, preliminary monthly totals.
Full data and trend: Medicaid/CHIP enrollment indicator page
What Do the Medical-Debt Measures Show?
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's March 2022 report on medical debt found that 58% of debt in third-party collections on credit records was medical debt, using data from the second quarter of 2021. The measure establishes the composition of collection tradelines in that dataset. It does not identify the circumstances that produced each bill or a later legal outcome for the affected household.
Healthcare CPI, Medicaid enrollment, medical debt in collections, and bankruptcy filings come from different sources and populations. Reading them together can describe concurrent conditions, but the aggregate data on this page cannot show that one measure caused movement in another.
Four Measures, Four Evidence Boundaries
Healthcare CPI measures price change. Medicaid enrollment counts people enrolled in public coverage. CFPB research describes medical debt reported in collections. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts counts bankruptcy cases filed. Each answers a different question.
No record-level linkage in these sources establishes a sequence from a price change or coverage change to collections and then to a court filing. This page therefore reports the measures separately and does not convert their co-movement into a household-level causal claim.
Explore the separate bankruptcy filing series →Data Sources and Methodology
CPI measurement basis: Every CPI reading and historical comparison on this page uses its source-owned basis unless explicitly identified otherwise: Year-over-year percent change computed from the seasonally adjusted BLS Medical Care CPI (CUSR0000SAM); seasonally adjusted values may be revised; Percentage-point difference between year-over-year changes in the seasonally adjusted Medical Care CPI (CUSR0000SAM) and seasonally adjusted all-items CPI-U (CPIAUCSL); seasonally adjusted values may be revised; Year-over-year percent change in the BLS prescription drug CPI, series CUSR0000SEMF01. BLS has published prescription drugs as not seasonally adjusted since its 2022 review, and this series' values equal the unadjusted index from January 2017; earlier values are seasonally adjusted.
BLS Consumer Price Index — Medical Care
Series CUSR0000SAM, seasonally adjusted. Covers medical care services (professional services, hospital services, nursing homes and health insurance, which BLS prices indirectly) and medical care commodities. Monthly; American Default computes the 12-month change, and BLS headlines its own from the unadjusted index.
BLS Consumer Price Index — Prescription Drugs
Series CUSR0000SEMF01. Prices of filled prescriptions, a subset of Medical Care CPI. Values match the unadjusted index from January 2017 on and are seasonally adjusted before 2017. BLS has published prescription drugs without seasonal adjustment since its 2022 review. Monthly.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Monthly Medicaid and CHIP enrollment data from CMS enrollment reports. Covers the 50 states and DC; U.S. territories are not in the total. States report a preliminary figure and an updated one, which CMS says should not be compared with each other.
CFPB Medical Debt Research
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau research on medical debt in collections and credit reporting. Bankruptcy filing totals on this page come separately from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much have healthcare costs gone up in 2026?
Medical care prices were 1.6% higher than a year earlier in August 2026, down from a 12-month change of 3.5% in August 2025, by American Default's calculation from the seasonally adjusted BLS Medical Care CPI (series CUSR0000SAM). On our seasonally adjusted basis, that is the lowest 12-month change since February 2024. BLS headlines the 12-month change from the unadjusted index, which can differ slightly. The index prices the total paid to providers, including what insurers and Medicare pay, so it is not what households paid out of pocket. In 2019 the rate averaged 2.8%; during 2021–2023 it reached 6.0% in September 2022. The full time series is tracked in the Medical Care CPI indicator.
Is healthcare inflation higher than overall inflation?
Not in the latest month. In the 12 months to August 2026, medical care price growth trailed all-items price growth by 1.8 percentage points. The gap is down from 0.5 percentage points in August 2025. The gap is our subtraction of two seasonally adjusted BLS rates, in percentage points; "premium" here means that gap, not an insurance premium. Whether medical care outpaces the all-items index depends on the month, and BLS gives no cause for the gap's sign or size. See the healthcare inflation premium indicator for the full history.
Are prescription drug prices going down?
In August 2026, prescription drug prices were 2.9% lower than a year earlier, down from a 12-month change of 0.9% in August 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index for prescription drugs. The 12-month change has been below its year-earlier level for eight months in a row. The index tracks the total a pharmacy is paid for a prescription, the patient's copay and the insurer's or plan's share together, so it is not what patients pay at the counter and not a manufacturer list price. BLS has published this index without seasonal adjustment since 2022. The full series is at Prescription Drug CPI.
How many people lost Medicaid coverage in the unwinding?
The enrollment count on this page cannot answer that directly. CMS counted 73.2 million people enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP in June 2026, as the 50 states and DC report them. A fall in that point-in-time total is a net figure, people who left minus people who joined or came back, so it is not the number who lost coverage, and it does not show what coverage people had afterward. Counts of people disenrolled at renewal, such as KFF's, measure something else. The pandemic continuous enrollment condition ended on March 31, 2023, and states then resumed regular eligibility renewals.
How are medical debt and bankruptcy data related?
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's March 2022 report found that 58% of debt in third-party collections on credit records was medical debt, using data from the second quarter of 2021. Bankruptcy statistics come from a separate Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts filing table. Neither dataset links a particular medical bill to a later bankruptcy case, so this page reports the measures separately rather than treating them as a causal sequence.
How do healthcare costs connect to the American Distress Index?
Healthcare prices, Medicaid enrollment and medical collections are context for the American Distress Index rather than direct inputs. The index currently reads 47.0 (Typical). The composite itself sits higher than 44% of all published quarters since 2005. For the full index methodology, see the American Distress Index page. The cost-of-living statistics page tracks healthcare alongside other expense categories.