ANALYSIS/OPINION:
The cold and flu season is upon us. If you haven’t had your flu shot, it’s likely too late for one, at least one that will do any good. And even if you have, there’s still a chance you might — from the sniffles to the coronavirus — catch something.
Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that but, if it does, you and millions of Americans like you are going to find a need to interact with the nation’s health care system. No one, forgive the pun, is immune. Everyone has a stake in the game. This is why we in the Tennessee Legislature have made it a priority to make affordable health care services more accessible to everyone.
One of the things we’ve uncovered is the various ways government regulation drives up costs to the consumer while limiting innovation and modernization. Tennessee’s certificate of need (CON) requirements arbitrarily limit health care services by requiring health care providers to receive state approval from the state’s Health Services Development Agency (HSDA) and its commission to expand facilities and services.
It seems to me few things are as ridiculous as mandating that hospitals and clinics prove to state government bureaucrats they’re “needed” before opening up for business, creating more bed space, buying equipment or taking other steps enabling them to meet increased patient needs. That’s why Rep. Robin Smith and I have proposed legislation to eliminate, or at least substantially reform, the anti-competitive, anti-consumer CON process with House Bills 1085 and 2350.
In the minds of the so-called policy professional who first came up with this idea, CON requirements give the government control over a wide variety of expenditures that cover everything from new medical procedures to new construction. In Tennessee, we regulate 23 certificates of “need,” which is not only higher than the national average but, as the Mercatus Center at George Mason University found, there would be an additional 63 health care facilities, 26 ambulatory surgical centers and 25 rural hospitals if the certificate of need requirement did not exist.
It’s bad policy, not just because it retards technological improvements in health care delivery, but because it fosters an atmosphere of cronyism. A 2011 study by the National Institute for Health Care Reform found in five of six states with CON requirements examined, the approval process was both highly subjective and influenced to a great extent by political relationships instead of actual need.
CON laws make health care more expensive, harder to come by and not as good as it could be. And they make it more difficult for families in rural communities to receive the quality of care available to folks in the cities and suburbs because the facilities to provide it don’t exist.
The people of Tennessee — and everyone else, for that matter — should insist on government being transparent, realistic and providing opportunity rather than extinguishing it through needless regulation, especially in health care. CON laws make no sense, at least not as they are currently constructed in our state. They are a burdensome overregulation of a vital industry that my colleagues and I are leading the way in repealing.
Time is often a crucial part of whether health care services will be effective when delivered. When a small child becomes sick and his or her family must spend 45 minutes getting to the nearest hospital, something is obviously wrong. If it’s regulation that’s the cause of the delay, then government is working against the people, not for them. As legislators and citizens, it is our job to ensure it does.
• Martin Daniel is a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, representing District 18, and is currently chairman of the Government Operations Committee.
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How Certificate of Need (CON) laws make health care more expensive - Washington Times
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