Through Black Enterprise Editors
June 11, 2025
Where is inflation the most difficult to touch consumers? New data show which goods and services have seen the greatest price increases
It is no secret that prices have risen over the past decade, especially for healthcare. As new economic policy, such as ratesTake power, we can expect consumers to continue to fluctuate out-of-pocket costs.
Goodrx Research has followed how inflation influences consumers in various budget categories, including prescription medicines.
Main takeaway restaurants:
- New data from GoodRX research shows that inflation influences consumers in different categories, including food, rent and medical care. Although the costs of prescribed medicines have risen by 39% since 2014, prices have risen even more for tobacco, meat, eggs, rent and hospital services.
- Wages have risen in addition to consumer prices, but inflation for many supplies, such as housing and hospital services, continues to exceed the growth of profit. As a result, the management of health is becoming increasingly unaffordable.
- Recipe medicines have experienced the highest inflation compared to other medical goods, such as non -recipe medicines and medical equipment. However, prices have risen faster for medical services, such as intramural and outpatient care, nursing homes and dental care.
The graph below illustrates the cumulative price increases in various consumer categories since 2014, and emphasizes how healthcare -related costs are relating to other essential goods and services.

Note that there are different ways to measure the costs for prescription drugs, including Patients for the owner of the patientManufacturer list prices, average wholesale prices, cash prices, insurance copays and more. For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates a consumer price index for a typical prescription drug, which has increased by 30% since 2014. In comparison, the catalog prices have been determined by drug manufacturers with 39% since 2014.
The consumer categories are getting the hardest due to inflation.
Consumer prices for many categories have risen considerably in recent decade. Since 2014, the total prices for all goods and services have risen by 37%.
The following consumer categories have seen the price increases greater than total inflation:
- Egg
- Tobacco
- Rent
- Average hour of income
- Meat, poultry and fish
- All food
- Prescribed medicines
Although wages have risen over time, they have not kept pace with the prices of many goods and services. Categories such as tobacco and rent, in particular, continue to exceed the growth in profit.
The costs for prescription drugs have risen rapidly from 2014 to 2017. Since then we have seen a steady and regular catalog price rises from around 3% to 4% at the start of each year. As a result, the costs for prescription medicines have risen by approximately 39% higher than in 2014.
Nowadays, however, the inflation of drug price is no longer the fastest mover. Housing, food and even wages have now overtaken the pace of the inflation of prescription drugs. Within the general category of medical goods, however, the prescribed medicines remain the most sensitive to inflation.

The fastest growing prices in health care
Rising medical prices for consumers contribute considerably to inflation, making health care more and more unaffordable for many.
Different categories of health prices grow faster than total inflation:
- Veterinary services
- Intramural hospital services
- Outpatient hospital services
- Nursing homes
- Dental services
- Prescribed medicines
Despite attempts to store the costs of the patient by policy such as hospital pregnancyHospital services are the heaviest affected by inflation. The costs of nursing homes have also risen rapidly over the past decade. Higher prices for hospitals and nursing homes are an important challenge for the aging American population, with the share of people aged 65 and older expected to continue 47% in the next 25 years.
The costs of veterinary care for pets have also been raised in recent years, with prices growing by 75% since 2014. out of his own.
The costs for dental care have also risen rapidly in recent years and have other health care categories, such as prescription medicines. Under medical goods, price changes for prescription medicines at the top of the list, that for non -recipe medicines and medical supplies.

What rising prices mean for consumers
Inflation in health care not only exceeds overall inflation – it exceeds income. This means that the income of people do not grow as fast as the majority of their healthcare costs, including hospital visits, medicines on prescription, dental care and nursing homes.
With the costs of health care that grow faster than incomes, for many people, health care is becoming increasingly unaffordable, even with insurance. The number of people who are “Under -enforcement,‘Those people with disproportionately high healthcare costs comprises compared to their income will probably continue to grow if things do not change.
And with economic policy under constant debate – from tax changes to import restrictions – it is more important than ever to keep track of how these shifts can wrinkle through the health care system and daily budgets.
Methodology
We have compared the data of price change of the consumer price index of the Bureau of Labor Statistics with changes in catalog prices measured by wholesale acquisition costs that have been established by manufacturers.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics: “The consumer price index (CPI) is a measure of the average change in time in the prices of consumer articles and services that people buy for daily life.” The CPI is estimated on the basis of a representative sample of consumer purchases in the United States, but it is not an extensive measure of all price changes. The CPI also includes changes in sales tax and other taxes.
Patients usually do not pay the catalog price of a medicine directly to the pharmacy. The catalog price can have permanent effects on the total price of HealthcareInfluencing coin insurance and copayments, pharmacy fees and even long -term insurance premiums. Higher list prices ultimately lead to Higher out-of-pocket costs For patients.
We have chosen to keep changes in the costs of medicines on prescription by investigating the prices of medicines, whereby the entire spectrum of medicines is recorded and provided with community pharmacies. We use a national representative sample of prescribed medicines from every quarter to estimate the drug mix in all community atmosphere for that period. The drug mix is then used to calculate the average catalog price change of all medicines.

This story was produced by Goodrx and assessed and distributed by Pile.
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