Wall Street Journal highlights Americans for Prosperity Foundation’s new report on how Certificate of Need laws deny access to affordable health care

Feb 27, 2023 by AFP

On February 24, The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by Kevin Schmidt and Thomas Kimbrell with Americans for Prosperity Foundation. The piece highlighted the duo’s latest investigative report revealing the billions in health care investment that Certificate of Need laws have denied across eight states in the last few years.

“Certificate of Need regulations require hospitals and healthcare providers to obtain government approval before they can build new facilities, expand existing facilities or purchase certain types of equipment — even beds,” wrote Schmidt and Kimbrell. “It would be more accurate to call them “permission to care” regulations, as they arbitrarily prevent patients from accessing life-enhancing innovations.”

Making matters worse, CON laws allow existing providers to prevent competition by giving them the ability to object to new CON applications submitted by their would-be competitors.

“Forcing health care providers to get competitors’ approval before they can expand is unfair and anticompetitive,” wrote Schmidt and Kimbrell. “It would be like forcing 7-Eleven to get permission from Wawa and Circle K before being allowed to open a new store.”

Read the op-ed and Americans for Prosperity Foundation’s report, “Permission to Care.”

For media inquiries, please contact Geoff Holtzman, gholtzman@afphq.org