“Why are there so few ICU beds?” Report lambasts “patchwork” of laws limiting healthcare access

As the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the country, public health professionals issued dire warning that the nation could face a critical shortage of hospital beds. At the height of the pandemic, no one had the time to stop and ask: “How could one of the world’s most advanced healthcare systems run out of hospital beds?” But now, a new report by the Institute for Justice (IJ) details how a patchwork of decades-old laws hindered healthcare providers’ ability to meet the needs of the nation.

https://ij.org/report/conning-the-competition/

In “Conning the Competition: A Nationwide Survey of Certificate of Need Laws,” IJ’s attorneys detail how certificate of need laws, or “CON” laws, in 35 states set hard caps on a variety of medical services—including much-needed ICU beds—in the name of preventing “oversupply.” In reality, the CON laws that remain in place serve only one purpose: to protect existing healthcare providers from competition. They are the vestiges of a discredited attempt to govern healthcare access by formulas and regulators, rather than allowing doctors and patients to work together to best meet the needs of the nation.

“It is telling that the majority of institutions that support CON laws are those that benefit from them,” said IJ Attorney Jaimie Cavanaugh, who co-authored the report. “In reality, they only serve to protect existing providers from competition.”

The report was released in conjunction with IJ’s “2021 Initiative,” which seeks to take the lessons learned in 2020—including the need to eliminate CON laws—and work with lawmakers at the state and local levels to identify and craft substantive, responsive, and impactful reforms ahead of the 2021 legislative session.

https://ij.org/report/conning-the-competition/
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