Sounds like an ad you’d see on late night TV for some dubious and expensive dietary supplement. But, according to this article it’s actually the difference in how the US spends its health care money compared to Canada. We’re getting ripped off! They spend $3k less per year per person and the average life expectancy is 3 years longer (plus infant mortality kills 3 babies per 1,000 births more in the US).

Are Health Care Costs a Problem for Your Business?
What the article doesn’t mention is how this problem affects business. I see several effects. One is that companies who can locate across the border will. A car plant in Ontario has significantly lower health costs than one in Michigan. Along with those jobs go all the business it sends to sub contractors etc.

Another is that it forces companies to compete on performance – not if their work force has too many pre-existing conditions which could raise your costs or lower that of your competition.

A third is that having healthier customers who live longer and don’t spend as much on health care is probably a benefit to more companies.

Takeaways:

• This is a problem with a political solution. I know it won’t be easy since it cuts across many deeply held beliefs. But sometimes the facts need to win out over the comfort of a deeply held belief.

[Note: My policy in this blog is only to discuss politics in the context of how it affects business.]