RISING health insurance costs emerged as a major pressure point for households as Malaysia's healthcare inflation accelerated to 3.0 per cent in 2025 from 1.3 per cent in the previous year.
The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said health-related insurance expenditure surged 9.1 per cent, contributing to a sharp acceleration in medical services inflation to 4.4 per cent from 0.9 per cent in 2024.
In its Health Price Index (HPI) 2025 report, DOSM said the index measured price movements across three main categories — medicines, medical equipment and health services.
Medicines, which carry the largest weighting at 38.9 per cent, recorded a 2.8 per cent increase last year compared with 2.2 per cent in 2024.
The increase was driven by higher expenditure on medicines, vaccines and other pharmaceutical preparations, as well as herbal medicines and homeopathic products.
Both subcategories recorded increases of 4.5 per cent in 2025, compared with 2.2 per cent and 0.7 per cent respectively in the previous year.
Meanwhile, medical equipment inflation rose to 1.1 per cent from 0.6 per cent, driven by a 1.3 per cent increase in medical products expenditure.
Medical diagnostic products recorded a 1.6 per cent increase compared with 0.3 per cent in 2024.
DOSM said the first full HPI publication provided more detailed findings following the release of the Preliminary Malaysia Health Price Index Report 2025 in July 2026.
It said the index would help the government, stakeholders and the public track healthcare cost trends and support more effective planning, implementation and monitoring of the sector. - November 10, 2026
