The New York Times started a small business blog a few weeks ago called “You’re the Boss.” While the content is great, it was actually some comments on one of the recent posts that struck me as particularly interesting.

The post itself was called “Are We Becoming Less Entrepreneurial?” It highlighted data from three different sources that show entrepreneurship is on the decline. Author Scott A. Shane reasoned near the end of the post that this decline is likely a result of large companies out-competing small startups. He called it the “Wal-Mart effect.” Several of the post’s commenters argued a different reason.

“How about the ‘health-care-system-in-the-United-States-is-an-abomination’ effect?”

“The private market for health insurance these days is pretty brutal, and even though I have skills that might be suitable for hanging out a shingle, I’m loath to do it if it means forgoing access to affordable health care.”

“Even if decent health insurance coverage can be obtained, which is a big ‘if’, the fact that many new businesses fail and that the entrepreneur (and his or her family) could also lose health insurance coverage is a serious disincentive to starting a new business.”

I’m not about to go off on any kind of rant regarding health care reform in this country, so try not to get super worked up. I am curious, however, about the strength of these comments. Clearly health coverage issues are becoming a greater burden to small business owners each day, but are they really the single most compelling reason would-be entrepreneurs are rejecting entrepreneurship in masses? Or is it more like the straw that broke the camel’s back?

I myself am not an entrepreneur and am definitely not an expert on the heath care system or how to fix it for that matter, so I’ll leave that up to you to decide. But if that is the case, and entrepreneurs with all their ducks in a row are stopped dead in their tracks by the health insurance market, then that may be one of the most compelling reasons I’ve heard for making serious reforms in the system. Entrepreneurs are who will create economic growth in this country. Let’s not allow something like health coverage to deter them from even attempting to make that happen.

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