Kathmandu. Rising medical costs in 2026 are forcing employers across Asia to adjust health insurance strategies. <\/p>\n
That’s according to an Asia Employee Health Infographic and Insights from Howden’s Global Employee Health report. “Medicare costs in the region are expected to be higher than general inflation,” the insights said, adding that this has put pressure on employer-sponsored health plans. \u2019<\/p>\n
More than half of Asian employers, or 51 per cent, expect medical expenses to rise significantly this year. That’s the global average of 41 percent. <\/p>\n
In response to the report, 50 per cent of employers said they had increased cost sharing in the last 12 months. Many are also reviewing plan design, increasing flexible benefits and focusing more on preventive care to manage insurance claims costs. <\/p>\n
In Asia, insurers expect cancer, heart disease, musculoskeletal conditions and diabetes or other conditions to be major drivers of medical plan costs in 2026. Employers have also identified mental health, heart disease and high blood pressure as major cost pressures. Obesity-related conditions are on the rise on the risk agenda. That includes the impact of GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic. <\/p>\n
Last year, 43 per cent of Asian workers said they had access to private health care for their most serious medical treatment, and 54 per cent said employer-provided private insurance covered the entire cost of the treatment. Health benefits are closely linked to workforce retention. <\/p>\n
Nearly half of Asian workers, or 48 per cent, said health benefits would influence their decision when looking for a new job. Nearly 70 per cent say they are more likely to live with an employer that offers better health benefits. That’s 60 percent globally. <\/p>\n
Mental health has been identified as a key cost driver for employer health plans. In the past 12 months, 38 per cent of employees received treatment for their mental health, mostly through medication or group therapy, and 28 per cent used their employee health benefits or medical insurance to receive this support. <\/p>\n
Employers are responding by adding services such as employee assistance programs, peer support and digital mental health platforms. However, 18 per cent of employees said they felt uncomfortable using employer-provided healthcare for mental health due to concerns about privacy, career impact and stigma. <\/p>\n
The report also points to the increasing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in health service delivery. About 64 per cent of employees said they trust AI in their healthcare journey, and 38 per cent have already experienced its use, including treatment planning, remote monitoring, telehealth and administration. \u2013Agency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kathmandu. Rising medical costs in 2026 are forcing employers across Asia to adjust health insurance strategies. That’s according to an Asia Employee Health Infographic and Insights from Howden’s Global Employee Health report. “Medicare costs in the region are expected to be higher than general inflation,” the insights said, adding that this has put pressure on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":227887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45031,45044,45159],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-289687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banner-news-en","category-international-news-en","category-news-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289687"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/english.insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289688,"href":"https:\/\/english.insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289687\/revisions\/289688"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/media\/227887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}