hide captionThe Affordable Care Act could encourage people to start new businesses by solving an age-old problem: job lock. <\/p>\n
The Affordable Care Act could encourage people to start new businesses by solving an age-old problem: job lock. <\/p>\n
The Affordable Care Act which many see creating challenges for businesses could benefit a particular group of business people: entrepreneurs. <\/p>\n
Joshua Simonson was reluctant to give up his job at a Portland, Ore., area grocery store, New Seasons Market, which he says had provided excellent health care for him and his family. He had a pre-existing condition that has prevented him from getting insurance in the private market, but one key development helped convince him to quit and start a farm. <\/p>\n
\"One of the biggest factors was the Affordable Care Act,\" Simonson says, \"that our family would be able to be covered by health care starting the beginning of 2014.\" <\/p>\n
Now, the young entrepreneur runs a 26-acre farm near Sheridan, Ore., where chickens till through the flower beds and goats graze on the lawn. He has 3,000 egg-laying hens, whose eggs he and his partner will sell in the Portland metropolitan area. Soon, they'll add pigs and raise chickens for meat. <\/p>\n
It had been hard to leave a job that provided health care, especially since he had trouble getting coverage in the past. <\/p>\n
\"I was ineligible for any health care. I'd been denied by five different companies because I have back problems,\" says Simonson, who's broken three vertebrae in his back. \"Nobody wanted to cover me because of that.\" <\/p>\n
Economists call what held Simonson back job lock, or entrepreneur lock. <\/p>\n
\"Entrepreneur lock has proven to be a significant barrier to potential entrepreneurs,\" says Dane Stangler, vice president of research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation, which promotes entrepreneurship. <\/p>\n
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Read more:<\/p>\n
Health Care Law Helps Entrepreneurs Quit Their Day Jobs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" hide captionThe Affordable Care Act could encourage people to start new businesses by solving an age-old problem: job lock. The Affordable Care Act could encourage people to start new businesses by solving an age-old problem: job lock. Continue reading