Free-market health care

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Re "Profit margin"(Public Forum, Aug 6):

The free market is the only thing that works. Yes, even in health care, it works.

Although when an emergency occurs, it is not the time to shop around for a good price, the benefits are still realized. Hospitals do not live off of emergencies alone. They spend plenty of time servicing less urgent needs and every time they make such services cheaper, their emergency care is sure to follow.

We should work to impose a free market on the health care industry. If hospitals competed openly for our dollars, we would see the hospitals that provide the best values pop up, take over, replace and/or displace the others.

And, suddenly, the more expensive service providers would be ousted from our choices during emergencies.

I wish economics would be taught to everyone.

Jack Scherbel

Ogden