25 Nov 2015

Survey: 2016 Global Medical Trend Rates

The survey responses reflect the medical trend expectations of Aon Hewitt's professionals and clients. The figures represent the percentage increases in medical plan unit costs that are anticipated to be required to address projected price inflation, technology advances in the medical field, plan utilisation patterns, and cost shifting from social programmes.

Key findings:

The prevalence of employer-sponsored medical plans is increasing in all countries covered by the survey.
In 2015, the global average medical trend rate of 8.75% was 5.5 percentage points higher than the average inflation rate of 3.2%.
The top reported conditions giving rise to adverse claim experience around the world are: cardiovascular, cancer and gastrointestinal.
Aon Hewitt expects further medical cost escalation due to global population ageing, overall declining health, poor lifestyle habits becoming pervasive in emerging countries, continuing cost shifting from social programmes, and increasing utilisation of employer-sponsored plans.