Comments about ‘Utah ranks 26th in children's health care’

Imagine, America is the only country in the world that has allowed its primary health care to be purely market driven and so out of step with Adam Smith economic theory that, well... it's plain insanity and idiocy.

It's time for America to quit being held hostage to free-market big pharma and private insurance shenanigans and put across the board universal health care into place.

Amen to Anoymous. Go to Wikipedia article on "single payer system". See how the USA spends almost twice per capita than Canada (and most other industrialized countries) yet our health indices (infant mortality, life expectancy, etc.) resemble many third world countries. Bottom line, we spend more and get less and don't have universal coverage.

The problem is that the free-market is NOT working for health care. Consumers do not understand the care offered/given, do not have adequate information to select the best hospitals and doctors, do not have real insurance (rather they have pre-paid health care - this is another topic), do not have real incentives to take care of their health (discounts on insurance for various factors such as cholestrol, weight, etc. - we have an eat-whatever-you-want, don't exercise, same price for everyone system), big pharma and other segments of the system are not operated on free market principles, there are gatekeepers at many levels preventing rational outcomes, etc., etc., etc. We could only hope the system were free market.

Out of step with Adam Smith? Well I am not sure how many economists would agree with you on that one. I for one am interested in finding ways of decreasing government involvement in health care not increasing it. Name one social program the government has implemented without making things worse.