Health care costs throughout Maine are rising faster than any of us can keep up with. Amidst the many reasons for this, one Maine-specific issue is our state’s archaic Certificate of Need (CON) system. These laws artificially prop up large healthcare providers by curtailing competition at the expense of patients, and it’s time our legislature stepped up.

CON laws were originally established to ensure patient demand was sufficient to encourage provider demand. However, they’ve since been exploited by large hospital systems in our state to block competitors from bringing new services to market at lower cost. Fifteen states have now repealed their CON laws, but not Maine, where we’ve seen our supply of health care services go down, our prices go up, and our quality and access worsen.

Evidence shows that CON laws are anticompetitive and protect incumbent providers. Rather than improving access and reducing costs, they have the opposite effect. States that have repealed CON laws have seen their overall health care costs decrease by 0.8% annually, while states with CON laws have 11% higher overall costs, fewer hospital beds, imaging devices, and longer waiting times. CON laws create overly burdensome processes that hinder new entrants from competing in the health care market, allowing existing hospitals and health care facilities to be grandfathered in.

An example of how broken Maine’s CON system has become is the lack of Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs). These low-cost hospital alternatives have grown in popularity in recent years, especially in rural communities. Despite this, Maine hasn’t had a new ASC open in 20 years.

Healthcare in Maine should not have a government-sponsored monopoly system dictating prices and access for Mainers. Our legislators need to lead on this issue and repeal the current CON system to empower local communities, not entrenched hospital executives.

Aiden Anderson

China