Back in 1996, I wrote a book called The High-Risk Society. The book was based on the vision that Americans had to embrace risk and innovation in order to achieve faster growth and long-term prosperity.
An essential part of that vision, however, is the creation of a much stronger safety net. If we are going to ask Americans to take risks for growth, to accept disruption in return for innovation, they have to be protected from the worst consequences of failure.
In particular, it becomes much harder to take a chance on growth if it means you might lose your healthcare. That’s why Obamacare, despite being ungainly and awkward, is an essential step towards a high-growth economy. People who want to start a new company or join an innovative new enterprise shouldn’t have to worry about whether they will be able to get healthcare. People who want to work halftime and go back to school shouldn’t have to worry about whether a sudden medical problem will throw them in the poorhouse.
Obamacare is a step towards unleashing the creative juices of Americans. There are lots of problems, of course. We need to ensure that the new Obamacare bureaucracies don’t strangle innovative company. But now that the basic mechanisms are in place, we can move onto the more important task of empowering innovative and hardworking Americans.
This piece was cross-posted from Innovation and Growth.
