CON

The data show CON laws don’t work, and the reasons are obvious.

John Nothdurft is back. He and Donny Kendal present episode #105 of the In The Tank Podcast. Today’s podcast features work from the Cato Institute, the Mercatus Center and the Pacific Research Institute.

John and Donny continue their weekly exploration of think tanks across the country in episode #51 of the In The Tank Podcast. This weekly podcast features (as always) interviews, debates, and roundtable discussions that explore the work of think tanks across the country. The show is available for download as part of the Heartland Daily Podcast every Friday. Today’s podcast features work from the Beacon Center of Tennessee, The Heartland Institute, the National Center For Policy Analysis, and the Foundation for Economic Education.

In an April 5 editorial titled “Bill would ruin certificate of need program,” the News Sentinel argued legislation Tennessee lawmakers are considering could make it harder for the poor and Tennesseans living in rural communities to obtain access to high-quality, affordable health care.

In today’s edition of The Heartland Daily Podcast, host Donald Kendal introduces Heartland’s new Managing Editor of Health Care News (HCN) Michael Hamilton. Hamilton talks a bit about his background as well as several topics that will be featured in the upcoming issue of HCN.

Competition has long been proven to improve services, lower prices, and give consumers more choices, but despite the success of the free market, Georgia has decided to restrict competition in its health care industry. Georgia is one of 36 states that limit the ability of health care providers to expand their businesses by mandating an approval process known as a certificate of need. The system gives current suppliers of health care services an unfair advantage and keeps out new entrants into the marketplace.

As several business owners in North Carolina recently found out, “green” nonprofits aren’t always forthcoming about their agendas. Despite receiving tens of millions of dollars from billionaires like Tom Steyer and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, many of these environmental groups have taken to desperate measures to attract support from the general public for their unpopular agendas.

In ancient times, wealthy city-states built impregnable walls to ward off attacks from neighboring tribes and other enemies. Today we have a modern-day equivalent in North Carolina, where a few large hospital chains benefit from impenetrable defenses in the form of certificate of need (CON) regulations protecting their wealthy practices from the menace of competition in the form of smaller, more innovative providers that charge less.