It's also different because healthcare isn't a necessity. Many people can go for years with no health issues, but everyone needs to eat on a regular basis.

This idea (not you, mind you; just your retarded idea) is retarded. Healthcare isn't a necessity until it is.

As a 22 year old, you are unlikely to suffer congestive heart failure. But you also clearly have no idea what it costs to get hit by a car, to have a sudden unexplained seizure, or a burst appendix.

The problem with health care isn't that perscriptions cost to much or that it costs too much to see a doctor. Any of us can pay for a doctor's visit. The problem is that a 4-night stay at hospital will bankrupt you.

This is why I'm saying that healthcare isn't a necessity. I might not need any medical care for years, but if I needed to spend 4 nights in a hospital it would bankrupt me. This makes not having health insurance risky, but starting a company has its risks. I would say that most of them are probably not as serious as this, but it's still just a risk.

Starting a company is as much about managing risks as embracing them. You want to take risks with little downside and enormous upside. Not having health insurance is a risk with enormous downside and little upside.

This is probably the only way you'd risk bankruptcy starting a company. There are lots of risks that you'll drain your bank account, but when it looks like you're going to lose your lease, you go get a job.

"...healthcare isn't a necessity. Many people can go for years with no health issues..."

If you mean that most young people in the developed world (who've been delivered by trained midwives, checked over by a doctor at birth, had all their vaccinations, regular eye tests and dental checkups, and managed not to break a bone during childhood or adolescence) generally haven't needed to see a doctor or go to hospital for urgent medical attention, then you've got a point.

Of course, as they get older, they'll almost certainly need some sort of medical treatment.

It depends on your age. When you're in your 20's and single and your employees are also, healthcare isn't usually a huge issue. But when you work for startup(s) during your 20's your body will take a toll from all of the hours of hard work, lack of sleep and bad diet. When that, and the likelihood of having a family, catches up to you, you will find healthcare a necessity.

You may have to pay for recurring prescriptions. The birth of a child, and many other things that will surely become necessities.

I've had car insurance for many, many years. In the past 10 years, despite paying many thousands and thousands of dollars for it, I've never "needed" it, even though I drive every day.

Many EU countries have welfare so generous that one need not worry about buying food, paying rent or paying for healthcare.

Why not look to those countries and see if they have more startups?

Those countries also have regulatory climates that are hostile to businesses. It is harder to incorporate, more onerous to have employees, much harder to fire, and businesses are taxed more aggressively.

I doubt health care is the reason it's harder to start up in France.

I think the reasons are cultural rather than regulatory or fiscal.