The problem is U.S. tax breaks for health care if your employer buys it, and laws that ban health care competition across state lines. We should have a robust consumer market for health care services and insurance, and we don't, and that's the limiting factor. Expanding government control over major parts of the economy is hardly a recipe for expanded economic activity or start-ups. Also, I think the post is factually wrong-- America has three or four times as many start-ups per capita. And the pool of capital here is much bigger, thanks in part to lower taxes on income (yes that matters, the VC industry didn't exist until Reagan cut the top rate from a confiscatory 70%) and lower capital gains taxes.