Healthcare services are becoming more and more unaffordable for inflation-plagued consumers, as Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) numbers for January 2025 show a steep surge in medical expenses.
The latest data released by the PBS earlier this month showed that fees for medical tests spiked 5.36% in January as compared to December, compounding an already steep 15.16% year-on-year increase.
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General practitioners as well as specialist clinics have also become 4.28% more costlier in January, while dental services saw a 2.22% monthly rise — a whopping 26.16% hike compared to the same period of the past year.
Hospital charges weren’t spared either, with costs jumping by 0.36% in January alone and by 13.09% year-on-year. Meanwhile, medicine prices continued their ascent, rising 0.52% last month and surging 17.48% over the past year.
Overall, healthcare expenditures climbed 1.27% in January, mounting pressures on already burdened households struggling to afford basic as well as essential medical care.
Analysts say that with inflation showing no signs of slowing down, this shocking rise in healthcare costs is taking a huge toll on the physical as well as mental well-being of the financially compromised public.
In Pakistan, people at large — especially children and the elderly — often succumb to complications of treatable diseases due to poverty-driven inaccessibility to basic healthcare.
The inflation rate fell to its lowest in more than nine years, dropping to 2.4% year-on-year in January, the statistics bureau said on Monday. Inflation has cooled significantly, easing from 28.3% in January 2024.
