104 Iowa L. Rev. 385 (2018)

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Abstract

The Iowa Legislature enacted the Iowa Certificate of Need (“CON”) law in 1977 after Congress passed the National Health Planning and Resource Development Act (“NHPRDA”). The NHPRDA more or less forced states to adopt CON laws as a prerequisite to receiving federal funding. The federal government repealed the NHPRDA in the 1980s after concluding that the statute, and the CON requirement it imposed on the states, did not control health care costs, but rather, contributed to increasing health care cost across the country. Fifteen states have repealed their respective CON law in response to the NHPRDA’s repeal, but Iowa has not. This Note argues that Iowa should follow those states, thus the Iowa Legislature should repeal, or significantly amend, the Iowa CON statute because in its current form, the statute does not control cost, but results in economic protectionism and contributes to the continual increase in health care cost for Iowans.