India’s workforce faces rising medical inflation, reveals report

In a study that sheds light on the health of India’s workforce, a new report from insurtech company Plum, titled ‘Health Report of Corporate India 2023’, shows that India has one of the highest medical inflation rates in Asia at 14 percent. This increase in healthcare costs has placed a financial burden on employees, with 71 percent bearing the financial burden by personally covering their healthcare costs.

With India’s employment landscape poised to expand from 522 million people in 2022 to an estimated 569 million in 2030, the report highlights that only 15 percent of this vast workforce receives any health insurance from their employers, as per a report by Niti Aayog. . The burden of healthcare costs disproportionately impacts more than 90 million people, with healthcare costs accounting for more than 10 percent of their total expenditures. Additionally, only 12 percent of companies offer telehealth support.

The report also shows that nearly 59 percent skip annual health checkups, while 90 percent neglect regular doctor consultations to monitor their health. These figures raise concerns about the long-term consequences for individual well-being and overall health outcomes.

Saurabh Arora, co-founder and CTO of Plum, said: “An average person spends 90,000 hours working. That’s almost a third of their lives. Employee health should be a top priority for organizations, not only from a humanitarian perspective, but also as a strategic investment in their workforce. Therefore, health insurance alone is not enough; companies must implement comprehensive health care benefits that enable insurance, primary care and preventative care.”