23 Nov 2020

Report: 2021 Global Medical Trends Survey report

Willis Towers Watson’s 2021 Global Medical Trends survey reveals that although the pandemic has had a significant impact on healthcare utilisation and overall costs in 2020 due to a sharp decline in non-urgent surgeries and elective care, the resulting decrease in medical trend will be short-lived.

Globally projected healthcare benefit costs will take a sudden drop in 2020 before rebounding to 8.1% in 2021, up from 5.9% in 2020 and 7.2% in 2019.

Key findings

Average increases across different regions next year will range from 5.8% in Europe to 8.5% in Asia Pacific to 10% in the Middle East and Africa to 13.6% in Latin America. Healthcare benefit cost increases in the U.S. are expected to remain stable at 7.3% next year, according to other Willis Towers Watson research.
Looking beyond 2021, over two-thirds (67%) of respondents expect medical costs will continue to accelerate over the next three years.
The pandemic has helped to accelerate the adoption of telehealth with half of insurers globally currently offering telehealth across all plans.
Respondents rank cancer (80%), cardiovascular diseases (56%), and conditions affecting musculoskeletal and connective tissue (41%) as the top three conditions that currently affect medical costs. Gastrointestinal (40%) moved into the top three conditions causing the highest incidence of claims along with cancer (48%) and cardiovascular (36%);however, about four in 10 respondents predict mental health conditions will be among the three most common conditions affecting costs within the next 18 months (40%) and among the three most expensive in the next 18 months (39%).

Willis Towers Watson’s 2021 Global Medical Trends survey tracks medical costs from a global network of 287 insurers in 76 countries.