How to lower reported inflation: drop things that are getting really expensive from the basket. It is worth noting that, with an aging population, long-term care (LTC) insurance is likely to become a bigger factor in the budget of many families. Yet, the BLS has decided to drop it from the basket.
Upcoming change (posted on BLS site):
https://www.bls.gov/cpi/notices/2025/methodology-changes-2025.htm
Changes to the health insurance index (posted August 12, 2025)
With the release of October 2025 data on November 13, 2025, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will remove long-term care (LTC) insurance from the health insurance index. Changes in the market for LTC insurance have made it out of scope and ineligible for pricing in the CPI market basket.