Ever hear of the CON law. CON stands for Certificate Of Need. Before a new hospital can be built there has to be proof of "need" for a hospital. Not all states have a CON law.
Not surprisingly, existing hospitals are happy with the status quo and they do not want any more competition.
CON laws, which emerged on the federal level as part of the Health Planning Resources Development Act of 1974, were intended to control healthcare costs by regulating healthcare facility construction. Although the statute was repealed in 1987, CON programs persisted in 36 states.
The growth of ASCs and specialty hospitals has led many states to resist CON reform, despite the fact that a free market approach to health care actually decreases the financial burden on consumers.
Hospitals and their trade associations tend to support, if not actively promote, CON programs, claiming that they are necessary to ensure equilibrium in the supply and demand for facilities and curtail inflation in healthcare costs resulting from a surplus of hospital beds. According to this theory, empty beds beget higher charges to compensate for the fixed costs associated with maintaining large hospital facilities
I don't know if MS does or not, but I do know the local medical monopoly spent a ton of money (funny, seeing how they are a "non-profit organization") keeping a new hospital from being built a year or three ago. If I remember correctly, it came down to a vote and the new one narrowly lost. My wife worked for them then, and she was rooting for the new guys, although I'm sure she would have been fired if she had let that be known.
We have a very few clinics and one small hospital in the area run by a "competitor"--my bet is that's the only thing keeping the big boy out of a monopoly lawsuit. They either bought up or ran off practically every other clinic and private practice. It's disgusting, and definately needs reforming. There's about a year wait to see some specialists, in part because this hospital can't keep enough docs.....but they ran a big article "assuring" everyone how we didn't need another hospital.
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"We can have no '50-50' allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all."-- Theodore Roosevelt
A wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart at his left. Ecclesiasties 10:2
The last four letters in American..........I Can
The last four letters in Republican........I Can
The last four letters in Democrats.........Rats
Yep, my state has it. I've posted about it many many times here on the forum. You're not allowed to build your own hospital or your own MRI center. The state decides every few years where and how many things are needed and then it's a bidding process to add what they feel is required.
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John Adams “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”
Ronald Reagan: 'Everybody that is for abortion has already been born'
"I never said I was worth it. I only said I wouldn't do it for less " William F. Buckley Jr.
Oh goody...lets let the government decide (everything). NOT!
I think you miss the point, the lobbyists for health care talk the law into keeping it that way. Then the law turns on the health care industry and what do they do, work harder at lobbying the law. Health care really doesn't want to keep government out, it just wants to be in control of it. A false belief because government has no loyalties, not even to it's self.
I think you miss the point, the lobbyists for health care talk the law into keeping it that way. Then the law turns on the health care industry and what do they do, work harder at lobbying the law. Health care really doesn't want to keep government out, it just wants to be in control of it. A false belief because government has no loyalties, not even to it's self.
But why is the price of medicine a concern? Alsatian and a few others trumpet how "satisfied" Americans are with the status quo. The health care providers have no vested interest in keeping prices high or raising them higher, do they?
And after all, once in a while we hear of a Canadian coming to America for health care. That proves it's affordable for all American employers, right?
And if the patients wants cheaper drugs/scrips ffilled they go to canada & mex for the same fda approved drugs sold here at higher prices( if there still allowed to?)
Hmm
Dont remember what happned with all those busloads of elderly ppl going on bus/road trips across the borders to buy prescription drugs i remember hearing about.( a while back).. my memorys bad & i dont keep up.
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Let others praise ancient times; I am glad I was born in these.-- Ovid (43 B.C.-A.D. 18)
Things ain't what they used to be and probably never was. ~Will Rogers
Tomorrow hopes we have learned something from yesterday.
"Shouldn't someone tag Mr. Kennedy's 'bold new imaginative program' with its proper age?" "Under the tousled boyish haircut it is still old Karl Marx—first launched a century ago.
There is nothing new in the idea of a government being Big Brother to us all. R.Reagan-1960
Dont remember what happned with all those busloads of elderly ppl going on bus/road trips across the borders to buy prescription drugs i remember hearing about.( a while back).. my memorys bad & i dont keep up.
I have to say though my mate as a nurse for many many yrs for the heath care industrys( who deliver most of the proffesional heath care in a hospital) never made a dime on any high priced drugs or supplys etc
( not even any gifts; from drug reps etc )
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Let others praise ancient times; I am glad I was born in these.-- Ovid (43 B.C.-A.D. 18)
Things ain't what they used to be and probably never was. ~Will Rogers
Tomorrow hopes we have learned something from yesterday.
"Shouldn't someone tag Mr. Kennedy's 'bold new imaginative program' with its proper age?" "Under the tousled boyish haircut it is still old Karl Marx—first launched a century ago.
There is nothing new in the idea of a government being Big Brother to us all. R.Reagan-1960
No Wonder Hospital Costs Are Sky High
my memorys bad & i dont keep up.
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