Rising Medical Costs in India Affects Employers Healthcare Planning

Anuradha Sriram, Benefits Director, Tower Watson India, said, “India’s health care system has traditionally targeted short- term acute health problems rather than focus on curbing the root causes-such as lifestyle risks-of chronic disease,” as reported in The Economic Times.

A majority of respondents said that Health and Productivity improvement is essential to their organization’s health strategy, and 73 percent expect to increase or significantly increase H&P programme support over the next two years. However 40 percent indicated that their organization had not adopted any comprehensive wellness measures yet and another 39 percent said they had made a start on wellness measures less than three years ago.

Also only 39 percent of employers currently implement health risk appraisals- this is particularly a grave cause of concern, given that compared with global rates, health risk factors relating to lifestyle are high for the Indian population as a whole. Attracting talent in a fast paced economy has been a higher priority than improving the productivity of the existing workforce. However, change is imminent and it can be seen that employers place greater emphasis and agency around employee health and productivity strategies.