By Roxanne Libatique
Hong Kong’s Insurance Authority (IA) is carrying out a market-wide review of medical insurance pricing and benefits as it responds to sustained healthcare cost inflation and looks to increase business from international policyholders. At a recent media briefing, Clement Lau Chung-kin, the IA’s executive director of policy and legislation, said the regulator wants carriers to broaden product offerings and reassess how they reach retail customers.
“We would like to see the insurance companies introduce more medical insurance products that are more accessible and affordable for the general public, with sales practices that are fair to consumers,” Lau said, as reported by SCMP. According to Lau, the IA will spend this year collecting detailed information from insurers on premium levels, claims experience, and compensation structures across the medical insurance market. The objective is to build a dataset that can be shared in a way that gives individuals and employers a clearer view of available coverage and benefits.
Such information would help consumers make better choices for their coverage, said Insurance Authority CEO Clement Cheung Wan-ching. “Industry-wide comprehensive data would also be useful to help insurance companies introduce more medical insurance products to customers, increasing competition in the industry and hopefully bringing prices down. We also want to make it easier for policyholders to change providers, which would also bring in better benefits and more choice for customers,” Cheung said. The initiative points to a move toward more detailed benchmarking of cost and benefit levels, with potential implications for product design, pricing, and distribution practices.
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The IA’s review is taking place against a backdrop of persistent medical inflation in Hong Kong. Cheung said overall medical expenses have been rising at around 9% a year in recent years, with high-end medical coverage seeing annual increases of almost 30%. These patterns affect both individual and group medical portfolios. Data from the Hong Kong Employee Health Insurance Index, released in January, indicates that the average annual premium per insured person is expected to reach HK$11,078 in 2026, nearly 15% higher than in the second quarter of 2025. The figures suggest continued pressure on employer-sponsored and individual plans, even before any changes to benefits or regulation. Demographics are adding to these pressures. Government statistics show that people aged 65 and above made up about 22% of Hong Kong’s 7.5 million residents in 2023. That share is projected to rise to 36% by 2047. Longer lifespans and higher utilisation are expected to increase demand for public and private healthcare, with knock-on effects on insurers’ medical claims and pricing strategies.
The Hong Kong review aligns with broader regional and global cost dynamics highlighted in WTW’s 2026 Global Medical Trends Survey. The study projects a global medical trend of 10.3% in 2026, up from an estimated 10.0% in 2025, continuing a multiyear period of high healthcare cost growth. Asia-Pacific is forecast to have the highest regional medical trend, at 14.0% in 2026, compared with 13.2% in 2025. Latin America is projected to see trends rise from 10.5% to 11.9%, while the Middle East and Africa are expected to move from 10.3% to 11.3%. North America and Europe are projected at 9.2% and 8.2%, respectively.
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The survey reports that 56% of insurers globally expect further increases in medical cost trends, and 55% believe these higher levels will persist for more than three years. These expectations point to an extended period of cost management, repricing, and benefit review. WTW’s findings indicate that key drivers of medical trend remain broadly consistent: new medical technologies, pressures on public healthcare systems, pharmaceuticals, and fraud, waste, and abuse. In Asia-Pacific, relatively generous benefits and limited cost-sharing in some markets are also cited as factors, underlining the role of plan design and utilisation controls in influencing claims.