Georgia senators began examining on Tuesday whether the state should still require permits to build health care facilities, after a push to loosen the rules mushroomed into a House-Senate standoff during this year’s legislative session.
The first meeting made clear that many committee members appointed by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones want a full or partial repeal of Georgia’s certificate of need rules.
“Georgians would be better off if the Peach State would join the states that do not have CON (certificate of need) laws,” said Thomas Stratmann, a professor at Virginia’s George Mason University. One of the study committee’s invited witnesses, Stratmann works with the Mercatus Center, a free-market think tank.
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