A little over a year ago, CHIR researchers published with partners at the Urban Institute a study predicting a significant increase in the number of self-employed entrepreneurs, as a result of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). We found that the law’s guaranteed issue and other insurance reforms, coupled with financial help for low- and moderate-income families to purchase coverage, would free up more people to pursue their dreams of running their own business, once access to decent health care was no longer solely available through their job. We estimated that, with the ACA, there would be 1.5 million more entrepreneurs than if the ACA hadn’t been enacted.

It’s too soon to assess the accuracy of our prediction, but anecdotal reports suggest that the ACA is already having an impact on the problem of “job lock.” For example, in the New York Times this weekend, reporters document the story of Lyla Turner, a St. Louis woman who reduced her hours as a hairdresser so that she could “follow her passion” and get an associate degree in digital arts. By going to part-time, she lost her job-based coverage, but she was able to get better, more affordable coverage through the health insurance marketplace. “’I feel that I’m a perfect example of who this law is directed toward,’ Ms. Turner said. ‘It frees up people like me to work toward having a better income in the future.'”

In her weekly business and entrepreneurship column for USA Today, Rhonda Abrams documents the stories of entrepreneurs who have been freed up to focus on growing their business – instead of worrying about health care:

“’We couldn’t have taken the business to the next level without Albert quitting his job,’ said Eleanor Leger, co-owner of Eden Ice Cider in Newport, Vermont. Leger and her husband, Albert, started the business making ice cider, a dessert wine fermented from apples, in their basement in 2007…. Before the Affordable Care Act, Albert Leger was tied to his job teaching chemistry at a New Hampshire boarding school.

“’Each of us has just turned 50, and health care’s important,’ Eleanor Leger said….

“Individual health insurance for the two of them would have been close to $2,000 a month. The Legers now pay $360 a month on Vermont’s health-insurance exchange because they qualify for subsidies.”

Ms. Abrams also shares the story of Carrie Stewart, a public relations entrepreneur in North Carolina:

“’I would have absolutely been forced to return to full-time employment in order to get a decent health policy if not for the availability of ACA coverage,’ said Stewart, owner of a content, marketing and public relations consultancy in Raleigh, North Carolina….

“’I was working full time and had been talking to several colleagues about breaking off and starting our own small agency,’ she said. ‘They declined because they didn’t want to lose their health coverage….’

“’Individual coverage was astronomically expensive. I shopped around, and for a middle-of-the-road plan, not a Cadillac plan by any means, $620 a month was the best I could get.’

“The Affordable Care Act changed that. Stewart pays $344 a month and is more than satisfied. ‘The quality of coverage I have far surpasses any employer plan I’ve ever been on,’ she said.”

Thanks to the ACA, these and stories like them are likely unfolding in home offices, garages and basements across the country, as people work to make the best use their skills and talents as self-employed entrepreneurs. For sure, they have a lot to worry about – revenue, expenses, finding qualified help, taxes – but being denied health care because of a pre-existing condition isn’t one of them. Only time will tell whether the predictions in our 2013 study bear out, but at least in these two cases, the ACA has helped unleash potential that would have otherwise gone untapped.