There’s mountains of data (and common sense) showing how Certificate of Need (CON) laws hurt consumers and patients. Yet crony politicians and connected industries still love to peddle them. 

CON laws force prospective new businesses in certain industries to get proof of the “need” for their business from the existing businesses in that area. In other words, CON laws force new businesses to get permission to open from their competition. CON laws raise prices and limit options in many industries, but CON laws that control the medical industry can put people’s lives in danger. 

This was the case in Georgia. 

Georgia Law Forced Healthcare Businesses to Obtain Certificate of Need

For years, Georgia law forced most new healthcare businesses to obtain a certificate of need before they were allowed to open. Institutions from hospitals to surgery centers to birthing centers were all forced to get permission from existing hospitals before they could open. Unsurprisingly, hospitals blocked many new healthcare institutions from opening. This left many Georgians—especially rural, low-income, and minority Georgians—with fewer options and less-quality, more expensive care. 

Data proves that healthcare CON laws across the country have resulted in: 

• 30 to 48 percent fewer hospitals.
• 30 percent fewer rural hospitals.
• 25 percent fewer open-heart surgery programs.
• 20 percent fewer psychiatric care facilities.
• 50 percent fewer home health agencies.
• Fewer dialysis clinics.
• Fewer hospitals per cancer incident.
• Fewer neonatal intensive care units (NICU).
• Fewer alcohol and drug abuse facilities.

Georgians, doctors, and healthcare experts have known the dangers of the state’s CON laws for years. But even though some marginal CON reforms have been successful, the entrenched powers governing the state’s healthcare industry have become a formidable barrier to most—if not all—significant reforms. 

Georgia Public Policy Foundation Shows CON Laws Drive Up Costs, Drive Down Quality Care

So the Georgia Public Policy Foundation took on the fight. 

The Foundation knew it would take a far-reaching campaign to significantly reform Georgia’s CON system. First, their policy experts developed an in-depth report showing the realities of CON laws and their impact on Georgians. The wide-ranging report goes into the history of CON laws nationwide, how they’ve been implemented across the country, and how Georgia’s CON laws have negatively impacted consumers and taxpayers. As the Report’s authors state, “For many Georgians, the state’s existing CON laws have limited their access to lower cost, higher quality healthcare services by providing entrenched incumbents with monopolistic control, often over entire counties and regions. Georgia communities spanning a wide range of socioeconomic statuses have suffered from the consequences of this regulation.”

Retired Atlanta Grandmother Monica O’Neal Shares Cancer Survival Story

To go along with their report, The Foundation also produced two videos showing the personal stories of Georgians impacted by the state’s CON laws. One video told the story of Monica O’Neal. Monica is a retired Atlanta grandmother who is lucky to be alive after the state’s CON laws made it nearly impossible for her to receive the cancer care she needed.

The second video told the story of Katie Chubb, a mom who wasn’t allowed to open a birthing center in Augusta (a low-income area of the state desperately in need of more healthcare options) because she wasn’t able to obtain a certificate of need from the area hospitals. 

To promote the report and videos, the Foundation planned a wide-ranging, well-targeted marketing campaign. This campaign not only made more Georgians aware of the state’s CON law problems, it grew The Foundation’s owned audience from 3,000 to nearly 40,000. 

In the end, because of The Foundation’s work, Georgia lawmakers passed important bipartisan CON law reforms for multiple medical industries The Foundation highlighted. 

While there’s still more work to be done to reform and eventually repeal Georgia’s CON Laws, because of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, Georgians have better options and care today than they have in decades.