Even though the state refused to give approval to Novant Health to build a hospital in southern Wake County, Holly Springs Mayor Dick Sears isn’t giving up. In this letter to the editor of the Cary News, Sears makes his case against the state’s decision, which finds its power in the outdated and misguided state law known as CON — Certificate of Need. From Sears:

We are great supporters of WakeMed and Rex but this is a matter of priorities. We had the facts. We had 15,000 letters of support (over three times more than anyone else), many excellent presentations at the Certificate of Need hearing, a top quality institution ready to start building immediately in Holly Springs, and around 90,000 residents in our area in critical need of the health services Novant offers without cost of implementation, tax increases, etc., to our citizens. Their offer to invest over $100 million for a full-service hospital, the jobs this hospital will create, the bringing of many new doctors and health care professionals to our area, and the offer of close proximity to our citizens who might need immediate care, did not seem to be taken into account.

The state has no business determining which communities do and don’t “need” medical facilities. The market will do that. By intervening in the market, the state prevents North Carolinians from benefitting from competition which, of course, leads to lower costs, higher quality, and more options. John Locke Foundation Vice President for Research Roy Cordato debunks the CON law here.