County mayor: Repeal certificate of need laws to protect health care freedom | Opinion
I have spent much of my short political career fighting against harmful government intrusion into our personal lives. Our state is special, in part, because of the high value Tennesseans place on individual liberty, as well as the many outstanding leaders who are committed to defending the freedoms we enjoy here.
One of the most serious threats to our health care freedom is something called certificate of need laws. CON laws are one of the worst examples of government overreach and intervention into the free market – and the kicker is most folks don’t even know these laws exist. CON laws require hospitals and other health care providers to request permission to build new hospitals and facilities or expand the services they offer. In effect, government bureaucrats determine your access to health care services, a scenario all of us should find horrifying.
As Knox County mayor, I was on the front lines battling destructive government overreach during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unelected government bureaucrats instituted mask mandates and mandatory lockdowns and tried to implement vaccine mandates – all at great cost to Knox Countians and our small businesses. They forced citizens to check their personal liberty at the door, all while facing unprecedented economic hardship. Many small businesses couldn’t afford to keep the lights on. Nevertheless, these heavy-handed measures failed to achieve their ostensible goal of relieving stress on the health care system as hospitals across the South were still overwhelmed.
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Here in Knox County, we were successful in pushing back against harmful government intrusion during the pandemic, restoring and emphasizing the importance of personal freedom. I worked in conjunction with other Tennessee officials to lift our mask mandate. We refused to comply with President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate that would harm small businesses, the backbone of our economy. With my encouragement, our County Commission stripped the unelected Knox County Board of Health of its lawmaking power and reconstituted it as an advisory body.
Today, however, because of CON laws, unelected bureaucrats still wield the power to have an impact on critical health care choices for Tennesseans. The CON approval process, which is prone to lobbying and influence, is fraught with unnecessary government red tape, causing health care providers to invest substantial time, effort and money just to pass through these government-created hoops, and can be used by established health care providers to block a competitor from being granted permission to operate in a specific geographic area. These anti-competition practices are antithetical to the free market principles that make our state great.
I am relieved that others share my grave concern about Tennessee’s CON laws. Gov. Bill Lee and the state legislature made substantial progress in reforming the flawed CON process last year, but more work remains to be done. Despite chipping away at the faulty system, 26 CON regulations remain on the books, inhibiting better access to care. The red tape inherent in these laws is slowing the expansion of Tennessee’s health care system, making it difficult to keep up with our rapidly growing population. It’s no wonder a dozen states that still had these laws in effect have either repealed them or allowed them to expire.
The COVID-19 pandemic showed us all just how harmful government intrusion can be. Let’s use the lessons we learned to continue to protect health care freedom and patient choice in the Volunteer State. Now is the time for the Tennessee General Assembly legislature to finish its work once and for all by fully repealing Tennessee’s CON laws.
Glenn Jacobs is the mayor of Knox County.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: County mayor: Repeal Tennessee's certificate of need laws | Opinion
