Institute of Justice takes on Certificate of Need restrictions on business freedom.
You Tube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vkopXpUOs3M#!
Colon Health Centers of America, LLC, et al. v. Hazel, et al.CON JOB: How A Virginia Law Enriches Established Businesses by Limiting Your Medical Options, and How IJ Is Going to Stop It.
If you want to offer new healthcare services, even something as routine as opening a private clinic, you have to obtain special permission from the state government. And permission is not easy to come by: Would-be service providers have to persuade state officials that their new service is “necessary”—and they have to do so in a process that verges on full-blown litigation in which existing businesses (their would-be competitors) are allowed to oppose them. Not surprisingly, this process can be incredibly expensive, and it frequently results in new services being forbidden to operate at all.
To be clear, this requirement (called a certificate-of-need or CON program) has nothing to do with public health or safety.