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Medical Benefits Costs Rising

The costs of employer medical benefits across Canada are forecast to rise 7.5 percent in 2023, says Aon’s ‘2023 Global Medical Trend Rates Report .’ The top medical conditions driving medical plan costs in Canada are autoimmune disease, diabetes, and mental health. As well, over the last two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted healthcare costs across Canada, with claims “slowly returning to pre-pandemic levels during 2022,” says Joey Raheb, senior vice-president and Canadian national leader for growth and client engagement for health solutions at Aon. The effects of long COVID-19 and other COVID-19 related illnesses and comorbidities (i.e., mental health) continue to evolve, while the Canadian market remains conservative in its reaction to pricing. Supply chain and rising inflation will also play a substantive role in 2023. “We expect a return to typical medical inflation driven by Canadian plan sponsors taking a more preventative and pragmatic approach to managing plan spend in 2023,” he says. The global average trend rate for 2023 is expected to be 9.2 per cent, up from 7.4 per cent in 2022 and the highest since 2015. The top medical conditions driving medical plan costs globally are cardiovascular, cancer/tumor growth, and high blood pressure/hypertension.

Globalized Climate Disclose Framework Needed

With Canadian, U.S., and international markets being so interconnected and with many cross-listed companies, it is imperative that there is a globally harmonized framework for climate disclosures and that the standards are as consistent as possible, says the Pension Investment Association of Canada. In a follow-up to its February 2022 letter on the disclosure of climate-related matters, it says since then the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed new regulation around climate disclosure and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) has issued draft disclosure standards. In a letter to the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) and Quebec’s Autorité des marchés financiers, it says there are some notable differences between the Canadian and U.S. disclosure proposals. As an example, the SEC disclosure proposal suggests a mandatory disclosure of scope 1 and 2 emissions, while the CSA proposal suggests either a ‘comply or explain’ approach or a mandatory disclosure of scope 1 with a comply or explain model for scopes 2 and 3. The SEC’s proposed regulations are more rigorous than the CSA’s and compliance with the SEC proposed rules will cover almost all of CSA’s rules, with a few exceptions. However, they are far from what Europe is introducing, making it difficult for multinational companies to comply with different standards. It encourages Canadian securities administrators to work closely with their counterparts in other countries to ensure there is a reasonable level of consistency between any final rules on climate-related disclosure. Ideally, there should be one global standard so that companies could apply a single set of rules to their climate disclosure regardless of the jurisdiction of regulation, it says. This means the CSA should revise its proposal so that it includes more stringent climate disclosure requirements, preferably in line with those in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world.

For details on these stories, visit www.bpmmagazine.com

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