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Intermountain Health Care doesn't deserve to be in the crosshairs of the Utah legislature.
That's what KSL said in February 2005 when crusading lawmakers began going after the health care giant and we reaffirm our view now. It is a position validated by the results of an independent study commissioned by a legislative task force charged with investigating health care markets in Utah.
To quote the study by Economists Incorporated of Washington, D.C:
"Health care markets in Utah are serving the interests of consumers by forcing suppliers of health insurance and health care provider services to offer the most attractive combinations of price and quality."
The study bluntly said lawmakers should "refrain from intervention in Utah's health care markets." To do otherwise would actually be a "detriment to consumer welfare."
The study, in KSL's view, should put to rest any concerns that IHC is the bad guy on the block - that health care in Utah could be improved by taxing IHC, or more radically, by breaking it up.
Nationally, of course, the health care system is broken and needs fixing. No doubt about it! But, within the context of that national system, Utahns have it pretty good. In KSL's view, Intermountain Health Care deserves credit, not condemnation, for the way things are.
