Multiple factors increased costs in the healthcare industry in 2022, including the ongoing supply-chain impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, geopolitical instability, and uncertainty around the global energy supply. As a result, most employers are now grappling with how to offer employees competitive health benefits while mitigating rising inflation and the overall impact on their bottom line.

It's a problem that is not going away, as medical costs continue to rise rapidly. According to the World Health Organization, global spending on health more than doubled in real terms over the past two decades, reaching US$8.5 trillion in 2019, or 9.8 percent of global GDP. However, these expenditures were unevenly distributed, with high-income countries accounting for approximately 80 percent.