Image by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.
An article in the New York Times asks why the monarchy persists in the UK, when they cost a lot and roughly half the British citizens couldn’t care less.
That seems to be a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
If you look up the numbers, the British monarchy uses a taxpayer-funded payment, the Sovereign Grant, totalling about $108 million in the 2021-2022 fiscal year. That’s about $1.61 per person per year.
For that, the Britons get a sense of continuity, pageantry, and some significant contributions to charities and fund-raising.
Here in the US, the healthcare insurance companies cost us much more. United Health Care reported a $5 billion profit – after operating expenses – in just one quarter. That’s about $14.85 per person for one quarter – just under $60 a year – for just one company.
That number doesn’t include the $283 million paid to the top 7 health insurance CEOs – more than the funds to operate the British crown. For that amount, we get an insurance system based on denying claims, with untrained claims people questioning the decisions of physicians.
Perhaps half the Britons wonder why the monarchy persists. Studies consistently show over two-thirds of Americans would prefer a Medicare-for-All system.
A. better article would be “As we go into 2023, most Americans wonder why our cruel, inefficient, inequitable health insurance system persists.”
Likely it’s because insurance and hospitals pay more to lobbyists each year than the Sovereign Grant dispenses to the royal family.
