  We study the cosmological consequences of higher-dimensional operators
respecting the asymptotic symmetries of the tree-level Higgs inflation action.
The main contribution of these operators to the renormalization group enhanced
potential is localized in a compact field range, whose upper limit is close to
the end of inflation. The spectrum of primordial fluctuations in the so-called
universal regime turns out to be almost insensitive to radiative corrections
and in excellent agreement with the present cosmological data. However,
higher-dimensional operators can play an important role in critical Higgs
inflation scenarios containing a quasi-inflection point along the inflationary
trajectory. The interplay of radiative corrections with this quasi-inflection
point may translate into a sizable modification of the inflationary
observables.
