Survey: just over half of business owners arrange own healthcare

The recent Yrittäjägallup survey shows that business owners are more likely to arrange occupational healthcare when they employ staff.

Occupational healthcare is voluntary for business owners. The recent Yrittäjägallup survey found that 57% of business owners purchase occupational healthcare services. One in three who did so chose occupational healthcare that is merely preventative, while the majority have a package which also includes medical care.

“Among single-person business owners, 27% had arranged occupational healthcare. By contrast, among companies employing at least two people, 82% had occupational healthcare. Occupational healthcare for employees is compulsory, which is why arranging it for the business owner themselves is a natural step,” Harri Hellstén, Labour Market Affairs Manager at Suomen Yrittäjät, the Finnish SME association, says.

Excessively high costs are the most common reason for a business owner not having arranged occupational healthcare for themselves. One in three respondents who did not have occupational healthcare said so. Of this group, 29% said they used other healthcare services, and one in five said they had medical expense insurance instead of occupational healthcare.

“A business owner prefers to purchase services themselves from the company of their choice, three quarters of respondents have done so,” Hellstén says.

One in ten respondents had purchased services from a private company holding a municipal tender, while 15% said they used public healthcare services.

Of business owners who had arranged occupational healthcare services, 41% said they found the services at the very least useful for their business activities. One in ten respondents who had purchased such services considered them damaging.

“From the perspective of occupational healthcare providers, I think the result is quite positive. Our previous surveys have shown that business owners have not found the experience very useful,” Hellstén recalls.

How the survey was conducted

A total of 1,240 representatives of SMEs responded to the survey, conducted by Veriana (formerly Kantar Public) on behalf of Suomen Yrittäjät.
The survey was conducted between 4 and 12 December 2023.
The confidence interval for the survey results is +/- 2.8 percentage points.

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