Former Utah majority leader Dave Clark praises Jon Huntsman for his work in developing Utah’s health-care program in a Daily Caller op-ed today:
When Governor Huntsman and I charted the way forward, our priorities aligned. We knew that an effective health care system must lower costs and provide more coverage. We set goals of giving small businesses and families fair and affordable ways of taking responsibility for their own health care needs. It became clear that mandates would, in many ways, negatively impact these goals. We realized that a system of defined-contribution reform would create market-based innovation, where our country has always found useful answers.
Health care system reform is not a simple task. In Utah, however, we’ve made great strides in applying market-based principles to systemic reform, thereby giving consumers greater choice, transparency, and information, rather than limiting their options and mandating their behavior.
As Utah’s governor, Jon Huntsman understood that market-based reforms are the most effective way — politically, economically, and fiscally — to bring about needed changes to a dysfunctional health care system.