Ask HN: Would Single Payer be Good for Startups?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4370018
by cantankerous • 14 years ago
1 2 14 years ago

I've seen discussion of this point in the comments many times. I myself wonder about the anecdote of the person who can't join a startup or form a startup because they depend on their health insurance (kids, family, chronic diseases like diabetes, for example). I'm not sure how often this situation occurs, but I have heard people of all stripes say something to the effect of "I'd start a business if I could have healthcare for me or my family" or "If you're going to start a business, I hope your spouse has a good healthcare policy." I can't help but feel this is a big issue, but I don't know how big the impact of lack of healthcare portability is in the US.

So my question to HN is two-fold: Is lack of healthcare for those starting a business (or joining a bootstrap-py startup) a real inhibitor to innovation and access to good talent in startups? Secondly, would single payer be a good model to alleviate these negative effects? If not, what do you think might be a good compromise in this direction, granted it is a real problem?

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