WakeMed and Rex are planning to build new health centers in Brier Creek, Panther Creek, Holly Springs, and Garner. The two non-profit hospital companies are following the money, but still have to get approval from the state to be able to build these new facilities.
Government control over hospital expansion, through certificates of need, makes the planning process more expensive for these hospitals and delays (or stops) people from getting care in their communities. That is, the government is limiting access to health care.
One proponent of even more government control of health care wonders when people will connect spending on new facilities with higher health insurance premiums.
- Will it be when everybody has insurance? Maybe the building will stop because Medicaid and Medicare don’t pay enough for hospitals to survive and one state hospital is in such bad shape that the federal government won’t pay for care there. That’s an alternative.
- Or will it be when we pay more health care costs directly? Back before Medicare and Medicaid, patients themselves paid more than $1 of every $2 on their care. Today, the average person pays about $1 of every $8. For comparison, LASIK eye surgery inflation-adjusted prices have fallen 30 percent in a decade and customer satisfaction with the procedure runs about 93 percent according to research published by Health Affairs in February.
