2018 Mercer Marsh Benefits Medical Trend Survey

Key findings from our 2018 survey:

2017 global medical trend rate: 9.5% — nearly 3x inflation*
Insurers increasingly investing in data analytics and initiatives to influence behaviors and costs of health providers
Health affordability, accessibility and quality continue to be key organizational and individual imperatives

The Mercer Marsh Benefits (MMB) Medical Trends Around the World report provides information about the cost of healthcare and top claims in markets around the world to help plan sponsors understand medical plan costs and design their overall health and well-being strategies. Medical trend rates are an essential element in MMB’s insurance rate analysis as we help clients design plans that control cost and meet the needs of their diverse workforces.

This is the fourth consecutive year of this research. From February to March this year we surveyed insurers around the world. A total of 225 insurers across 62 countries provided responses that are included in our survey results; 40% of the participating insurers are network affiliates of multinational pooling providers.

* The global medical trend rate is the average of 50 participating countries (excluding the U.S.) with an acceptable number of responses; this data reflect insurer survey results and may not be MMB’s view. Please refer to the report for sources for inflation rates.

The MMB Medical Trends Around the World research validates our thinking that there is a race within the insurer community to create the best stores of data and use this effectively.

Andrew Perry, International MMB Leader, Marsh

Given the digital health revolution underway, we are seeing progressive employers redefine health and benefit principles and question traditional medical insurance designs, many of which were based on receiving crisis treatment in a hospital setting.

John Deegan, International MMB Leader, Mercer

Future of health

1

As you think about offering sustainable and attractive health care benefits into the future, what aspect of health care is the most critical to address: Affordability, Accessibility, Quality (rank with 1 most important and 3 least important).

Affordability Accessibility Quality

2

Choose your country

3

Choose your Industry

Please feel free to download our full report and explore our interactive report on this site to learn how medical trends are evolving in the world.

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2018 Medical Trends Around the World