As a citizen of a country with universal health care, I can tell you that health care didn't even enter my head when I elected to become self employed and start my own company.
1. I don't need health insurance if I'm happy to be covered under the public system. Nobody goes bankrupt from healthcare costs in my country.
2. Because of universal coverage, purchasing private healthcare for my family costs about $200/month, and it's a personal policy, not an employer based policy.
3. If I employ someone I don't even have to have a discussion with them about healthcare. It is assumed they will sort out their own health insurance, the same as they sort out their own car insurance.
There is no doubt that health insurance has an effect on entrepreneurship and new company formation when it is one of the highest startup costs, that needn't even exist. I mean, before I started reading threads like this in HN, the thought never even entered my head.
No, I don't think you read my comment correctly. I don't need group insurance because the rates any employees would be perfectly capable of electing whether or not to have private cover, and most likely will have an existing policy not tied to any particular employer. The whole point is disconnecting jobs and health - there is no logical reason to connect these. I wouldn't expect my job to pay for my house insurance, why would I expect it to cover my health insurance?
1. I don't need health insurance if I'm happy to be covered under the public system. Nobody goes bankrupt from healthcare costs in my country. 2. Because of universal coverage, purchasing private healthcare for my family costs about $200/month, and it's a personal policy, not an employer based policy. 3. If I employ someone I don't even have to have a discussion with them about healthcare. It is assumed they will sort out their own health insurance, the same as they sort out their own car insurance.
There is no doubt that health insurance has an effect on entrepreneurship and new company formation when it is one of the highest startup costs, that needn't even exist. I mean, before I started reading threads like this in HN, the thought never even entered my head.