The Utah Foundation determined that this threat was the No. 1 concern for Utahns prior to the election. The concern: Health care.
We all know the parable of the Good Samaritan. A certain free-market, non-Medicaid expanding, up-by-your-own-boot-straps-I-can-do-this-myself gentleman is walking down the road when he is stricken with a severe asthma attack due to the winter air quality. (The second biggest concern for Utahns.) Select Health sees the stricken man on the sidewalk and walks to the other side. Blue Cross sees the stricken man and avoids him by crossing the street. Soon, the stricken man begins to turn blue. The paramedics arrive and check his pockets. He doesn’t have health insurance. Even so, the man is rushed to the hospital, where he is saved . . .
The free market is not a solution to health care. Forget it. If you want the free market to run health care, you must be consistent: this means refusing service to the sick and afflicted who can’t afford care. Otherwise, you are the insurance carrier walking to the other side of the street and increasing your customer’s premiums later, because as a society, we will still treat the sick. We just don’t do it as effectively because many of the sick don’t have money and won’t seek out treatment until it is a crisis. As soon as you say the sick are entitled to treatment, you can’t ethically put someone’s life in the hands of a “free” market.
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