I know all the academic work that goes into calculating inflation, but it’s never tracked to my comings and goings in a very high COL area. My health insurance premiums alone just increased 10%, not even counting the increases in deductible, copay, and oop max.

I was just reading a news article that claimed ACA premiums are down like 4%. Then again, now that I have an employer-provided plan (since about 5 months ago) (that appears to be worse than the ACA option) it's going up noticeably for 2020.

The smallest reform to the healthcare system that I think would be substantially beneficial, is just to let ACA plans compete for employed people on an equal basis. It's unreasonable that once you have a job then you have to pay way more for a marketplace plan. I'm nowhere near my deductible for the forseeable future, but certain office visits doubled in price just because I have a job with a temp agency that provides shitty insurance that effectively disqualifies me for an ACA plan.

There are serious consequences to calculating inflation.

If the published number spikes, so does the COL adjustments for social security. This would easily put the government underwater.