MANILA – If you’re set to undergo a medical procedure in 2025, brace yourself.

Medical costs in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand are expected to skyrocket this year amid the growing incidence of illnesses and increasing dependence on health services, according to a medical trends report.

Higher medical bills and more people claiming benefits

In a survey of health insurers, global advisory firm WTW found that key markets in Southeast Asia will be raising healthcare costs by double digits.

However, medical inflation appears to be more pronounced in Indonesia and the Philippines, where the rates of increase are nearing 20%, well above the average in Asia Pacific of 12.3%.

Medical cost increases by country, 2025

• Indonesia — 19.4%
• Philippines — 18.3%
• Malaysia — 16.4%
• Thailand — 14.2%
• Singapore — 12.0%
• Vietnam — 11.2%

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In the Philippines, medical inflation has remained between 15% and 18% over the past three years, rising to 19.3% in 2024. What drives these consistently high healthcare costs?

For one, more people are claiming their medical benefits. In fact, claims frequency in 2024 exceeded pre-pandemic levels in 2019. Meanwhile, the cost per claim is also increasing “primarily due to higher costs of medical services and procedures,” WTW said.

Hence, the two primary drivers of cost are the growing frequency of people relying on their insurance and an overall increase in medical expenditures.

Because of cost increases, insurers called health maintenance organisations or HMOs tripled their losses to 4.269 billion Philippine pesos (US$75 million) in 2023, from PhP1.433 billion ($25 million) just a year earlier.

Since then, HMOs have “adjusted their pricing assumptions annually to address the continuous increase” in claims, the study found.

“Although reports indicate that HMOs [were] recovering in the first half of 2024, ongoing negotiations between two HMO associations and various doctor groups regarding a potential 80% to 150% increase in professional fees are still driving the projected double-digit medical inflation projected for 2025,” said Nel Badal, Head of Health & Benefits, Philippines, WTW.

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The overprescription of medication and diagnostics

The WTW study also identified the behaviour of healthcare providers towards patients and the increasing cost of medical equipment as other factors influencing medical trends in the region.

Medical professionals in the Philippines, for example, recommend too many services to patients who are covered by insurance. These healthcare providers purportedly overprescribe medications and diagnostics, resulting in “unnecessary and excessive costs,” the report found.

Meanwhile, the Philippines’ public healthcare system has a tendency to be inundated with patients. As such, private healthcare providers are left to fill the demand for quality medical service.

“Continued pressure is being placed on private healthcare providers in the Philippines,” Badal said.

“Although the rise in availability of telehealth and other virtual care offerings is expanding access to healthcare in the Philippines, it also contributes to increasing costs. Coupled with the shortage of manpower in the healthcare sector in the country, the double digits trend of medical cost increases remains and is expected to rise in the near future,” Badal explained.