This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, December 18th,

2023. I'm Caleb Brown.

Whether you get convenient and considerate medical care

might be as simple as a government-created formula to determine the level of

need in your area, and your specific needs may simply not be included in that centrally planned

formula.

Jamie Kavanaugh is an attorney and legislative council at the Institute for Justice.

She says lawmakers aren't immune to the real stories of human suffering

and the physicians who want to offer care to more people.

I've said this a couple of times before but when you explain certificate of need laws to,

you know, a man on the street. It's a lot like civil asset forfeiture in the sense that people refuse to believe that that's how it actually works. That is you have a business that would like to expand or establish a facility and they need permission,

explicit permission from all of the people

who might stand to lose business over that expansion.

And it is, it should baffle people

that any state allows any industry, particularly one as important as health care,

to function that way.

I agree, yeah, that's absolutely correct.

That's the response you get from anyone when you explain certificate of need to them and you know we call it a permission slip to open or expand a health care facility

but you're right it's more than just a permission slip you're not just checking off boxes and filling out a form.

You're proving to the government that your service is needed and, you know, your direct competitors get to come in and argue,

hey, you know, we have the market covered.

We're serving all the patients.

...