health care costs

On March 3rd, 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) aka Obamacare was signed into law with the promise of slowing the rising costs of health care. The law added to…

The United States health care system is a unique, complex web of consumers, providers, and payers. And it is expensive. Health care spending in the United States has increased…

Is it legal for the state to block a private citizen’s entry into a market? A lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s Certificate of Need laws (CON) is attempting to…

It’s that time of year again. Time to renew your health plan, that is. The Affordable Care Act’s 2017 health insurance enrollment period is beyond its midpoint, and…

What the healthcare industry needs is a strong dose of disruptive innovation — relaxing regulations that will increase provider competition, force downward pressure on costs, and enhance patient choice. CON ultimately picks who gets to compete within the health care sector. Reforming the law will by no means untangle the complexities of health care, but state lawmakers should capitalize on an opportunity to make one of the most highly regulated industries a little less heavy on the red tape and a little more patient friendly.

Four decades’ worth of data and research into CON laws have shown that they fail to lower health care costs; if anything, they raise them. Despite this, North Carolina hosts one of the most restrictive CON programs in the country. State leaders could best prevent unnecessary increases in health care costs by repealing CON.