Health inflation rose to 3% in 2025 on higher service costs

PUTRAJAYA: Health inflation in Malaysia increased to 3% in 2025 from 1.4% the previous year, driven by rising healthcare service costs.

Chief Statistician Uzir Mahidin said the Preliminary Report of the Malaysia Health Price Index (IHK) 2025 released today showed that the health services category recorded the highest increase at 4.4%, compared with 0.9% in 2024.

He said the increase was mainly driven by a 9% rise in insurance expenditure.

Inflation for medicine rose to 2.7% from 2.2% in 2024, while inflation for health equipment increased to 1.2% from 0.6%.

In a statement, he said the medicine category was the largest component of household health expenditure in Malaysia, accounting for 38.9% of the IHK weighting.

He said Malaysia’s IHK covers health-related components from several consumer price index (CPI) groups, while other countries measure health inflation based on the health category in their respective CPIs.

He said health inflation rates in selected countries in 2025 ranged between negative 0.8% and 5.3%.

“Vietnam recorded a higher health inflation rate of 5.3% compared with Malaysia’s 3%, while Thailand recorded the lowest rate of negative 0.8%,” he said.