James's comment reiterated ones made by Darwin Moore in northern Indiana, who also expressed a hopeful desperation for Obama's healthcare agenda to pass quickly. Like James, Darwin and his wife, Laura, are accepting extreme personal risk in exchange for the opportunity to pursue their dream of small business ownership. Darwin is "uninsurable" because he survived a brain aneurysm last year. Though his doctor has scheduled follow-up exams to monitor the status of his aneurysm, Darwin won't be able to accept that care because his family can't afford thousands out-of-pocket for the necessary brain scans. Laura told me that prayer would have to be the main means of health insurance for her husband "until Obama fixes the system." I worry that if the fixes don't come soon enough, Laura could end up running their small business alone.

For most of his adult life Shawn Burke has known he could never hope to start his own small business. More than twenty years ago an insurer stuck Shawn with over $750,000 in medical bills after ruling that his policy's fine-print clause about problem pregnancies absolved the company of responsibility for paying the expenses of his prematurely-born son. (I saw another family profiled in the news last week going through a nearly identical situation.) "That f*cked up my entire life," Shawn told me. As a result, the 48-year-old has never even been able to secure a credit card.

Specific experiences such as the above make it fairly easy to illustrate how the business practices of a for-profit health insurance industry can create roadblocks that hinder entrepreneurship. I find it a greater challenge to convey the more profound detrimental impact the current status quo has on individual ambition, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness. Turns of tragedy have solid facts to report, while chronicles of unexploited potential rest on the demise of ephemeral aspirations.

I encountered dozens of individuals across the country who nurtured secret dreams and ambitions of the kind that could lead to great personal satisfaction but uncertain material wealth or stability. Without exception, as Hollywood cliches would dictate, every one expressed that they wouldn't need much money if they could live their dream...until they thought about health insurance. That's when their dreams hit a wall of reality.

Fear of losing--or not being able to afford--health insurance was the most common reason given for not embarking on an individual initiative or small business dream. Melissa Hinebauch, a stay-at-home-mom with a recently laid off husband in Concord, New Hampshire, helped give me perspective on the refrain I'd been hearing in the 40+ states I crossed before meeting her.

Melissa had missed being in a professional environment and always intended to return when her small children reached school age, but her pressing reality was that her family's COBRA coverage was nearing the end of its subsidized period. Her husband's job prospects were unclear, so she was re-entering the workforce to secure any job that provided health benefits.