Thursday, March 29, 2012

Will Obamacare Help or Hurt Innovation?

Today, I am going to try and catch up.  I have missed blogging because I am a CFO in my day job and it is annual board meeting time which has kept me busy for the past few weeks.  

First today, in the coming weeks I am going to delve into some mechanics of innovation.  By day, I work as CFO for a food producer.  The need to innovate in the grocery store aisle is intense right now, and over the past few years we have been honing our innovation process.  Over the next week I will sharing some of the things we have learned along the way.




No matter what side of the Obamacare debate you come down on, it is big news this week as The Supreme Court hears the arguments for the single payer mandate, commerce clause regulation, and whether the government in the future can make you buy a cell phone or broccoli! 


No matter how you slice it or dice it, we have a problem in American health care.  In our employer based system, many small entrepreneurial startups cannot lure in talent using the health care benefit because they cannot afford it.  This in turn stifles new business growth. 


In addition, the uninsured expect to be able to get health care at the hospital when they need it with no responsibility to pay.  Those costs are rolled into the fees charged the insured!  So, the argument goes, wanting privilege without responsibility needs to end by mandating that people get their own coverage.  This will increase the number of insured which helps health insurance companies. 


All of this sounds good, BUT.  What about the constitutional issues and the relationship between a government and its people, freedom, individual rights, and so forth?


I am not making this article partisan.  In my research, I found constitutionalists are writing much more on the issue of how Obamacare will effect innovation, so there are more articles here from that perspective.  I would appreciate it if anyone can provide more arguments for innovation from the pro-Obamacare point of view. 


No matter how this turns out, there is much room for innovation in the way we do health care in America. What do you think--will innovation be helped or hindered by Obamacare?


    Before we go today.. I love books of lists!  I loved this and hope you do too!

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