Thread by @Coyoteblog

As a reminder, prior to 2020, the Left critiqued the US hospital system for having TOO MANY beds, arguing that profit motive of hospitals was causing them to spend too much on capacity. See the study, for example, in the attached article which was typical
coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/ca…

As I describe in the attached article, this belief drove the Left to support certificate of need processes (in many states like NY) that require government and often competitor(!) permission to expand capacity or add things like ICU beds or MRI machines

https://twitter.com/boriquagato/status/1337446608477319168

PLEASE don't tell me this makes no economic sense. I know that. A large number of the market "fixes" from the Left make no sense. In this case, the certificate of need (CON) and similar processes were totally and completely counter-productive

It'd be a fascinating exercise to map groups critical of hospital bed shortages onto people who supported CON laws--my guess is that the Venn circles would overlap a lot. As would the circles for "Oppose right to try & FDA reforms" and "criticize slow availability of COVID tests"

But even before COVID, the CON laws achieved exactly the opposite of their intention, as anyone with one semester of econ 101 under their belt could tell you. Restricting supply has never ever reduced costs

And the certificate of need process has just become a crony exercise where incumbents protect their market share and margins against new competition

Not sure I linked the correct page originally. Here it is in case the other link does not work. @boriquagato @ElonBachman

coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/20…