Recent news accounts (see here) have described some of the statutory and regulatory procedures that will determine whether a new medical facility will have the state’s permission to be built in Columbia.
Much attention has been given (expect more to follow) to this process as well as the debate between proponents and opponents of the hospital project. Debate centers on the intent of the process and the accuracy of the details in the application, which is required under the Missouri Certificate of Need (CON) law.
All such debate will merely blur reality and boggle the public’s mind. Such debate will ultimately end, not with a free-market decision by a health-care provider, but in a legal process by which Soviet-style CENTRAL PLANNERS, the Missouri Health Facilities Review Committee (MHFRC), will determine the fate of the proposal.
The Missouri Intelligencer 