In 1975, the Alabama Legislature created the Alabama Certificate of Need (CON) Review Board with the authority to accept or deny certain health care providers’ applications to offer or expand various services.
Alabama’s CON approval process is overseen by a nine-member board under the State Health Planning & Development Agency. Alabama law requires the panel to consist of three consumers, three providers and three representatives of the governor.
According to a report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), eliminating or modifying certificate-of-need laws could help states such as Alabama lower healthcare costs.
Tuesday on WVNN’s “The Yaffee Program,” Former U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) discussed why the state should consider abolishing the Alabama CON Review Board.
“I believe in liberty and freedom,” Brooks said. “And if people are willing to risk their money building beds and hospitals, let them do it, and the market will determine who delivers the healthcare services the best, whether it be cheaper or higher quality or what have you. Let individual citizens, the consumers, determine which of these providers of these healthcare services are the ones that are deserving of staying in business because they have done that service better than their competitors.”
Brooks said this is just another example of government doing more harm than good in providing for citizens of Alabama.
“Right now what you’ve got with the certificate-of-needs laws is the government suppressing liberty, the government suppressing freedom, the government telling society how many of these beds you can have in a particular community,” he said. “That creates a monopoly of sorts, which in return results in a lower quality of care for the people who are utilizing those beds.
“It might be lower quality of healthcare, it might be higher costs associated with healthcare that’s being delivered because there’s no competition.”
The former congressman said special interest groups are working to block any reforms to the CON Review Board.
“Special interests run the Legislature,” he said. “Special interests run the lieutenant governor’s office and the governor’s office. And I’m not talking about just the ones who are here now, I’m talking about historically for decades. And there are special interests who prefer to make profit by suppressing competition.
“They’re willing to invest money in electing candidates who will pledge allegiance to the Certificate of Needs Board and anti-competition that the Certificate of Needs Board imposes on Alabama. And that money talks.”
Brooks said these policies are the opposite of what’s needed for economic growth in Alabama.
“So, you’ve got people who have interjected into the marketplace government mandates that suppress the kind of competition that makes the free enterprise system work,” he said, “and which has given us, America, the greatest economy in world history for more than seven decades.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
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