As a US small-business owner I admit that there’s one area where I envy my British counterparts: health insurance. I really wish we had a national healthcare system like the UK. It would make my life a lot easier.
It’s common knowledge that the UK’s National Health Service has premier-league-level challenges. I learned that a few months ago when my father-in-law was forced to spend seven weeks in a north London hospital bed for a minor leg break. Why seven weeks? Because he had the unfortunate timing of being there during two strikes. The NHS is antiquated, underbudgeted and understaffed. Patients there suffer with long wait times, subpar conditions and lots and lots of bureaucracy.
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But the system here in the US ain’t so wonderful either. Consider my experience when my own mother had to spend a few days in a Philadelphia hospital this summer (I know … what a year, right?). Things weren’t that much better. There weren’t any strikes. But the care was below average, with long wait times, staff shortages and plenty of bureaucracy too. Oh, and a few terrifying moments when we thought some of her care wasn’t covered by insurance … and the slap of realism when we discovered that at-home assistance isn’t covered at all.
Unfortunately, healthcare costs in this country are going nowhere but up. According to multiple studies by some of our largest healthcare consulting firms, the health insurance premiums paid by businesses in the US are projected to increase as much as 8.5% in the coming year.
The reasons for the jump in healthcare costs are manyfold (spoiler alert: inflation across the board), but the result’s the same: US businesses are going to have to suck up and pay more in healthcare and we have few other options. What’s worse is that many smaller firms can’t afford to do this, being already squeezed by higher expenses. But what else can be done in these times of tight labor? For those that can’t absorb, their employees – assuming they don’t quit – will ultimately have to share more of the burden.
Some US business owners say that healthcare in the UK is more expensive. But that’s not true. Just look at the numbers.
The rates in the UK vary by income level, but many employees must contribute as much as 14% of their pay for health insurance and employers need to contribute about the same amount. For these workers the cost of health insurance for someone making £60,000 a year would be about £8,400 ($10,500) each for the employer and the employee, or a total of £16,800 ($21,000).