The House of Delegates passed two bills designed to reform and scale back the crippling Certificate of Public Need restrictions on health care facilities in Virginia. However, the very different margins could mean different prospects for each bill as they go to the State Senate.
For the uninitiated, I’ve written a few posts in the recent past on how COPNs have led [1] to serious reductions [2] in health care supply [3], meaning higher prices, higher insurance rates, and less health care availability for all (hat tip to Norm Leahy [4] for addressing this issue first). Three bills were initially presented to reduce the COPN restrictions on health care. Sadly, the bill from Delegate Christopher Peace (who spoke to us [5] about this issue last month) failed in second reading, but Delegates Kathy Byron and John O’Bannon did see their bill pass.
Of the two (if the House votes are any indication), Byron’s bill appears to have the better prospects. HB350 won 94 votes in the House yesterday. By contrast O’Bannon’s bill (HB193, which is broader in scope) passed by a margin of six votes (52-46), meaning over a dozen Republican Delegates fell for the rent-seekers scare campaign (although two Democrats, Mark Keam and Sam Rasoul, did not).
Given the slim Republican majority in the Senate, O’Bannon’s bill could be in trouble – unless a few Senate Democrats follow the example of their aforementioned House counterparts who voted “aye.” Still, even Byron’s bill could get waylaid by a Senate committee, despite the broad support in the House.
That said, yesterday was still a good day for real health care reform. We’ll see if there are other good days in the near future.