The Silliest “Serious “ Argument for Obama Care

This is circulating:

The Silliest “Serious “ Argument for Obama Care

As the debate grinds toward yet another phony deadline, I would lke to nominate the silliest argument from an ostensibly serious source for ObamaCare.

My candidate is David Leonhardt from the 22 December business section of the New York Times. He argues “If Health Reform Fails, America’s Innovation Gap Will Grow.

Leonhardt bases this on the experience of an iPhone app company ….”in almost every interview,… the applicant ask about Pinger’s health care insurance plan.” A dozen years ago the recruits probably asked if they could bring their dog to work but I don’t recall the business columns of the Times bemoaning a pet shortage. These are serious times and one would expect more serious questions. But in fact, there is no problem with health insurance in Silicon Valley. Leonhardt writes “Silcon Valley with its network of venture capital backers figures out a way to get most of its workers some kind of health insurance.”

So what is Leonhardt talking about? His point is that people with jobs feel tied to those jobs because of health care insurance. That might be an argument for ending an employer based health care system or ending the tax favored status of those systems but they are of course entrenched in Obamacare. This might be an argument would be innovator who has a job is 55 with a pre-existing condition might stick with her job rather than strike out on her own. But at that age, innovators (Steve Jobs) probably are better for innovation leading large organizations. The would be innovators that are most affected by Obamacare are those risk seeking twenty somethings. These would be innovators will find they have less money to support their innovation because they have to buy Obamacare and will find less financing because Obamacare appears to be partially funded by taxes on investment income. If their innovation is in healthcare they may find no market because Obamacare will have medical necessity review boards. In the event, it will get worse as Obamacare will have to resort to price controls

There is of course innovation everywhere to at least some degree. But is the primary competition in innovation Germany (Obamacare) or China (no Obamacare)?