

Megan McArdle: Will Health Insurance Reform Spur Entrepreneurship? - tptacek
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/03/will-health-insurance-reform-spur-entrepreneurship/37888/

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tptacek
After a lot of hemming and hawing, her answer appears to be "yes".

I think she's giving short shrift to small businesses for two reasons:

* Those single-person contracting firms she's talking about are a vector for new multi-person firms. Contractors can make more money for the same amount of effort as FT employees, and, more importantly, usually have much more flexibility. No contractor needs to beg legal for permission to start working on a new product.

* New firms apparently average 5.6 jobs created, which sounds low. But new firms are also the engines of new product development, and some of those new products will create entire industries. That may or may not be reflected in the 5.6 person average she cites, but it ignores the intangible benefits of keeping US leadership in new markets.

