Health care costs may seem to be skyrocketing, but the growth rate is actually slowing. The cost of healthcare services covered by commercial insurance and medicare programs increased by 5.21% between January 2011 and January 2012. This was a drop from the 5.3% growth rate previously posted.

On several scales, growth rates slowed in January. “Healthcare costs’ annual growth rates decelerated modestly in January,” says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Indices. “The fall and early winter of 2011 was highlighted by a general upward trend in healthcare costs, as measured by annual rates of change. This month’s data, which was through January 2012, showed a modest deceleration in most types of healthcare costs, but not by enough to show any reversal of this trend. Over the past six months or so, annual rates of change in per capita healthcare costs were generally rising.”

The Professional Services Medicare Index was the only one to hit a two-year low, with +3.32%.  It also showed the steepest deceleration, 0.41 percentage points, compared to December rates. “In January, the Composite Index posted an annual rate of +5.21%, the Commercial Index +7.05% and the Medicare Index +2.40%. All three were down from their respective December 2011 annual growth rates, but are still above rates they posted in the summer and autumn months,” says Blitzer.

Over the last several years, many people have been decrying the increasing number of goods and services that are dependent upon one’s credit rating.