Health Care Reform & Entrepreneurs
Starting your own business often means going it alone on health insurance—a risky prospect for any individual, let alone a family. Reform will encourage entrepreneurs, says Ezra Klein.
Ezra Klein says there is a hidden deterrent to becoming an entrepreneur built into the American health care system: “We get health care at a subsidized rate, with no discrimination for preexisting conditions, from our employers. But if we leave our jobs, we lose that health care. And buying our own health care is expensive, and occasionally impossible: Plans sold to individuals cost $2,000 more than equivalent plans sold to businesses, the employer subsidy vanish, and we can be turned away because of back pain that got resolved a decade ago. So a lot of people decide to stick with their employer and forgo starting that business.”
