Certificate of Need News
Chamber to Senate: Don't pretend that health care in Georgia obeys the rules of the market
2/27/2009
Earlier today, we told you that Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams (R-Lyons) had publicly wondered why the Georgia Chamber of Commerce was opposing a private cancer hospital’s entry into the state.
Not long afterwards, the business organization put a lengthy explanation of its position on the desk of every state senator.
Said the Chamber:
"We often hear it argued that free market principles should be applied to health care. But unfortunately, health care in the U.S. does not respond to the free market, since 60 to 70 percent of reimbursements to hospitals and fees to physicians are Medicaid or Medicare…
"The Georgia Chamber of Commerce believes that, until market forces can be brought to bear in these cases, there should be no erosion of the [certificate of need] program in any area. For that reason, we oppose the efforts of Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) to obfuscate the CON process,” says the letter from Chamber president and CEO George Israel.
Read this letter by George M. Israel, III from the February 19, 2008 post of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
